C
The
Secretary-General on the Final. Mong-
at the proposed reorganisation of the Fund Secretariat (see paragraph 16). e Commission's work was, however, to a large extent dominated by American ploys and American inspired initiatives. Americans attempted, unsuccessfully, to give the impression that their own pet projects were in fact the brain children of other delegations. The lie was given to this facade by the heavy and obvious work that they put in (with a delegation of 14) to lobbying on more or less every subject that was debated. The work which they did in lobbying far excelled in impact what they achieved in debate; this was unremarkable, because their vualious alternate delegates were without any particular ability as speakers and the quality of the speeches which they were given to read was uninspired.
ITEMS OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE
6 The following paragraphs are intended to supplement the account of the meeting which will be found in the Commission's Report. They drow into prominence the matters of interest to the United Kingdom.
WORK ON THE TREATIES
7 On the work under the internationel treaties, the Commission accepted without any opposition the proposals for including Drotebanol in Schedule 1 to the Single Convention, for transferring Nicodicodine from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2, for amending the references to Diphenoxylate preparations in Schedule 3 and, on a proposal of France made during the course of the Commission and given formal approval by WHO two or three days later, the inclusion of preparations of Nicodicodine in Schedule 3. The United Kingdom delegation had been briefed (see paragraph 12 of IOC (73)5) to draw attention to the scientifically doubtful evidence upon which the Japanese had based their submission about Drotebanol and had the discretion to abstain in the vote. However when, during the course of the discussion, it emerged that WHO, USA and the USSR had done further work upon Drotebanol which supported the Japanese conclusions the United Kingdom delegate judged it proper to vote for the inclusion
of Drotebanol in Schedule 1. Had he not done so he would have found himself in a minority of one since the vote was unanimous.
INCB
8 During the debate on the INCB Reports for 1971 and 1972 two difficulties emerged which caused embarrassment to the Bourd and to its President, Sir Harry Greenfield. First, because of the timing of this Session, the Report for 1971 had already been considered by ECOSOC and the Report for 1972 had not yet been printed when the agenda item was first debated. The second arose because it was necessary to renew the administrative arrangements for achieving the technical independence of the INCB. Resolution 1196 (XLII) of ECOSOC of 16 May 1967 made arrangements for this purpose which were to remain in force until 1 March 1974. Resolution I of the United Nations Conference on Amendments to the Single Convention had expressed the view that the arrangements in force in respect of the INCB were satisfactory. The Commission therefore had to agree a draft Resolution for submission to ECOSOC this year. The United Kingdom joined France, Germany, Togo, Turkey and the United States in co-sponsoring the necessary draft Resolution. Unfortunately this was opposed by Mexico, which has had a tradition dating back for some years of arguing that the INCB is somehow a supra-national organisation responsible to nobody and that this offends against national sovereignty. This view won virtually no support in the Commission, but because it was brought into the open during the same discussion at which members had drawn attention to the fact that they could not consider the 1972 Report of the Board (which had much ruffled Sir Harry Greenfield) it did little to calm his indignation. In the event, the Commission decided to postpone the discussion of the INCB Reports from early in the first week to late in the second.
-
2
CONFIDENTIAL
!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.