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Israel
9. An Israeli request to take part in the Contact Group, on the grounds that their interests were not represented by the established groups, was opposed in Plenary by the Arab delegations (but supported in principle by the Cubans). The Chairman ruled rectly that the precedents would be followed, but he later in the Contact Group requcsted the Israelis to withdraw to enable the work to continue. This gave rise to a further round in the final Plenary, in which Israel based her case firmly on paragraph 12 of Board Decision 45(VII). The Chairman explained his action by the nced to secure the speedy conclusion of the negotiations in the Contact Group. The United Kingdor delegation did not intervene, having cstablished that the United States did not intend to. The Chairman of Group B made a brief statement regretting the incident, which had prevented a member of the Conference from being represented in the Contact Group.
Commonwealth
10. At the request of a number of developing Commonwealth delegations, an informal meeting was called by the United Kingdom delegation to discuss Commonwealth aspects of the scheme. The United Kingdom, supported by Canada, explained that consultations could only usefully be held when the developing countries were able to assess the offers of all the donor countrics. It cmerged that a major concern of the smaller countrics represented (especially Kenya and Uganda)
to ensure that the Commonwealth Secretariat be enabled to undertake an analysis of the offers to help them in assessing the balance of advantage.
Sir E. Melville
INTERNATIONAL TRADE DISTRIBUTION United Nations Dept.
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