CEYLON CONFERENCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27274, 28 December 1949, Page 5

CEYLON CONFERENCE

Thorough Arrangements British Delegation Leader Departs NZPA Special Correspondent Rec. 9.19 p.m. LONDON, Dec. 27. Two members of the Cabinet who will be strenuously occupied during the Christmas recess are the Foreign Secretary, Mr Ernest Bevin, and tne Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relation’s, Mr P. Noel-Baker, says The Times. They will be the United Kingdom’s ministerial representatives at the conference of Commonwealth prime ministers, which will begin on January 9 at Colombo under the chairmanship of Mr Stephen Senanayake, Prime Minister of Ceylon. The United Kingdom delegation will be led by Mr Bevin and he will leave London today for Rome, from where he will go by air to an Egyptian port to embark in the cruiser HMS Kenya for Ceylon. Mr Noel-Baker will make the whole journey by air. The two Ministers will be joined at Colombo by Mr Malcolm Macdonald, Commis-sioner-general for the United Kingdom in South-East Asia, and Sir Walter Hankinson, United Kingdom High Commissioner for Ceylon. They will also be accompanied by senior officials of the Foreign Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office, and the Treasury. An interesting feature of the conference will be the collaboration of the United Kingdom Cabinet Secretariat—at the invitation of the Ceylon Government in the secretarial arrangements. Sir Norman Brook, secretary of the Cabinet, is going to Colombo with some members of the staff of the Cabinet office, and he will be joint secretary of the conference with Mr K. Vaithianathan, who is permanent secretary of the Ceylon Ministry of Defence and External Affairs. This will be an historic conference, and the United Kingdom Government is deeply appreciative of the thorough arrangements made and the excellent facilities being provided by the Ceylon Government,, says The Times. Mr Bevin has been invited by the Governments of India and Pakistan to visit New Delhi and Karachi on his return journey. It is understood that Mr Noel-Baker will pay short visits both to New Delhi and Karachi on his way back to London.