4 a.m. Passing Of Student Charter Expected

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30477, 26 June 1964, Page 12

4 a.m. Passing Of Student Charter Expected

The International Student Conference was expected to adopt its char-, ter about 4 o’clock this morning. That was the intention, long past midnight, when delegates agreed to stay sitting until the job was done. Yesterday the conference began its third day on the charter at 10 a.m. and (apart from meal breaks) remained in session for 18 hours to get the charter through.

It was hot in the hall (accepted out of consideration for tropical delegates), discussion was often dreary and pedantic, and members were visibly tired. Tempers began to fray and sharp words were sometimes exchanged, though feeling remained fairly good. Rather than argue on the floor, some delegates preferred to organise power blocs and little caucuses could be seen in animated discussion in many places outside. Walk Out Threat

At one stage an Italian delegate threatened to walk out unless his amendment was accepted and the steering committee climbed down. At another stage there was a protest from Cyprus (which group was not clear) that its credentials had not yet been approved so it was deprived of voting rights. The credentials committee explained that it had first considered delegations which could be accepted without much difficulty but Cyprus was among the problem cases. There were two Cyprus unions represented (from the opposing factions in Cyprus) and neither was the union accepted at last conference, the credentials committee said.

Late Arrivals

When the all-night session began, there was another complication with the late arrival for their first appearance at the conference of a delegate from Sierra Leone, three from the underground Spanish union of students, a United Arab Republic delegation from Egypt, one from Syria and one from Liberia. These delegations were not "up with the play”, they had to be informed what had taken place, and they were fresh for the fray. But the conference chairman (Mr W. Savage) pushed ahead and by early morning it seemed that, “barring accidents,” the charter would go through. Four o’clock this morning was the most com-

mon prediction for the final vote.

Today, tomorrow, and Sunday the conference will be split into commissions; political, which will recommend resolutions on national situations in many countries; programmes, which will recommend projects to be undertaken in the next two years. These will be held in Hay’s hall and the Provincial Council chamber and will not be open to the public. Plenary sessions are expected to resume in the Canterbury Horticultural Society’s hall on Monday and continue until about Wednesday.