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would, therefore, certainly wish to participate in any further session of the Conference, if a General Assembly consensus was that there should be one, we would not ourselves encourage a reconvening of the conference at this stage. HMG are, in coordination with their European colleagues and under the aegis of the Council of Europe, continuing to examine the subject and others associated with it in the hope of producing local standards which might at some future date lead to global improvement.
HMG share with UNHCR the view that further accessions to the relevant refugee conventions and protocols should be actively pursued and that, where still maintained, the geographical limitations contained in the 1951 Convention and 67 Protocol should be withdrawn. Given the comparative absence of progress with the draft Convention on Territorial Asylum, the achievement of international solidarity on the basis of existing conventions is desirable.
Item 5: Voluntary Funds accounts for 1977 and Report of the
Board of Auditors (A/AC.967552).
Financial statements are usually noted by the Committee and not discussed in great detail. The accounts appear to be well drawn. We note with satisfaction that the unobligated year- end balances in Schedule 3 are in no case large in relation to the amount appropriated.
The delegation may care to congratulate the Office of UNHCR on the expeditious manner in which it has dealt with recommenda- tions made by the Auditors in earlier years (paras 3 and 14 of Auditor's report). The delegation may emphasise our support for the recommendations which the Auditors have attached to the 1977 accounts and our confident hope that the Office's administration will take steps to improve those procedures which have been found to be unsatisfactory or inadequate.
Item 6: UNHCR Assistance Activities (A/AC.96/553)
This includes UNHCR annual assistance activities in 1977 and the first half of 1978; proposed voluntary funds programmes and Budget for 1979; special operations.
Under this item, a wide range of UNHCR activities throughout the world will be discussed. The plight of refugees in both Southern Africa and Indo-China is likely to have prominence of place in the discussions. The delegation should be guided by the following notes and, where appropriate, related annexes.
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