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Printed for the Cabinet. March 1949

239

SECRET

C.P. (49) 69

21st March, 1949

Copy No. 31

CABINET

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation

THIRD GENERAL CONFERENCE

MEMORANDUM BY THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION

1. I circulate herewith a proof copy of the Report of the United Kingdom Delegation to the Third General Conference of UNESCO (Beirut, 17th November-11th December, 1948).

2. The Report is in two parts, an introductory report to me by the members of the United Kingdom Delegation, and a more general survey of the programme and budget of the Organisation, its administrative problems and external relations, as they were left after discussion by the Conference. The aim has been to provide a reasonably full factual survey in the light of which the official records of the Conference may be more readily understood by those interested in the Organisa- tion. On grounds of economy, the programme, budget, miscellaneous resolutions and other official documents of the Conference have been omitted from the Report this year. These are being printed by UNESCO and will be available in this country through His Majesty's Stationery Office.

3. UNESCO, now in its third year, has a staff of just over 600 and an annual budget of $7,780,000 (£1,935,323) compared with $7,682,637 in 1948. The United Kingdom share of this will be 13.55 per cent. or £256,857 payable in sterling convertible only into French francs. The United States contribution, payable in dollars, will be 38 47 per cent. The United Kingdom took the lead at Beirut in pressing for economy and efficiency, and $700,000 was clipped from the budget originally proposed for 1949. By securing that small-scale General Conferences held at headquarters in Paris should alternate with the fuller Conferences which revise the programme, the United Kingdom Delegation achieved future savings both for the Organisation and for Member States.

4. The Report of the United Kingdom Delegation to the General Conferences offers the best means of providing the public and Parliament with an annual stocktaking of the Organisation and I hope that my colleagues will agree to its being printed now and in future as a Command Paper.

G. T.

Ministry of Education, 21st March, 1949.

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