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a saving of £171,503 over the proposed figure. The United Kingdom contri- bution to the Budget was fixed at 13.55 per cent., £256,857. Page 438 of 488
nt., pand will amount to
18. In reviewing the work of the Conference, and despite the earlier opposition of His Majesty's Government and our own misgivings, we are in no doubt about the value of having held this meeting of scholars, scientists and educators in a small and distant country. We believe that a vivid and permanent impression of the Organisation's work has been left upon the Middle East. When we consider that last year the Second Session held in Mexico City had a similar influence upon the Latin American continent. the policy of holding the General Conference in each of the last two years in a different country seems to have been a wise and valuable one. But we and many other delegations felt concern over the demands that such a policy made upon the private time of delegates, the funds of Governments and the resources of the Secretariat. We, therefore, took the lead in securing general agreement that the General Conference should be held alternately one year as a small business conference to conduct necessary financial and administra- tive arrangements and the following year as a full scale meeting of repre- sentatives of education, science and culture from every Member State. This new policy will take immediate effect and the Fourth Session will be held in Paris in 1949 as a small business meeting, but with an opportunity to debate one or two topics of an urgent character.
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19. In conclusion, and with recognition of what the Third Session did and did not achieve, we can report that this Conference was a successful and heartening instance of international collaboration. Inter-governmental action in the political and economic fields has long been established. There exist traditional procedures, acknowledged techniques and a recognised language of statement and understanding. Inter-governmental action in the fields of education, science and culture has developed almost entirely during the last ten to fifteen years. UNESCO, the most important and ambitious instru- ment of such action, is just two years old. In many ways we are not far enough away from our own experience to be able to assess at its proper value the Organisation which has developed so rapidly or to set forth an accurate balance sheet of its strength and weaknesses. It was, however, this very task that the Third Session attempted, and, we are prepared to say, achieved in some measure. We believe that control is exercised over the funds entrusted to the Organisation by governments, that there is no extrava- gance in the use of appropriated funds, and that the proper regulations and rules of procedure to ensure order and efficiency in any new instrument of international planning are now firmly established. In programme activities, we feel that new and valuable work, based as it will be upon sounder administrative lines, can now go forward towards discovering those techniques which are needed to convert plans and projects into jobs done.
20. It seems to us that this is a most appropriate moment in the develop- ment of the Organisation for the appointment of a new Director-General. We express our warm satisfaction at the election of Dr. Jaime Torres Bodet, formerly Foreign Minister of Mexico, to the post of chief administrative officer. At the same time we cannot omit from our Report an expression of our gratitude for the distinguished service which an Englishman, Dr. Julian
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