FIRST SESSION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26749, 19 April 1948, Page 5

FIRST SESSION

MARSHALL AID COUNCIL OPENING IN PARIS N.Z.P.A.—Copyright PARIS, Apl. 16. The first plenary session of the Marshall Aid (European Organisation) Permanent Council opened in private at the French Foreign Office this afternoon. The Belgian Premier, Mr Paul Spaak, was elected president of the permanent council of the organisation for European economic co-operation. Delegates elected Sir Edmund HallPatch as president of the organisation’s guiding executive committee. A Frenchman, M. Robert Marjolin, was elected secretary-general of the organisation. The economic headquarters of the organisation will be Paris. Before the signing of the protocol of convention of European economic co-operation, the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Bevin, said: “We are now coming to the end of the beginning. Mr Marshall’s memorable speech on June 5 last year gave the Governments and peoples of Europe a new stimulus to self-help through mutual help.” Since then neither the American Government and people nor the Governments and people of Europe had wasted time, he added. The American Government and Congress had passed with generous speed the legislation designed to meet Europe’s needs. We, in turn, had now put the pledges into solemn obligations and devised an organisation to help administer American aid and also bring about a permanently sound European economy. The structure of the new organisation left room for development and expansion to include all European countries who would genuinely subscribe to the aims of the organisation, said Mr Bevin. The French Foreign Secretary, M. Georges Bidault, said the document was unique in the history of Europe. The nations, by economic unification, were builidng Europe—an indispensable factor for the prosperity and stability of the world. General Sir Brian Robertson, the British commander, signing on behalf of General Lucius Clay and himself, said the German bizonal authorities welcomed the opportunity for Germany to join the plan, and would form part of the bizonal delegation of the organisation. The signatory nations are Britain. France. Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Italy. Luxembourg. Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. The signatories included General Sir Brian Robertson, chief representative of bizonia, and General Koenig, French commander-in-chief in Germany.