A.—s.

Work op the Health Organization. The Chairman of the Health Committee, who was also the delegate of France on the Seventh Committee, gave a general account of the spirit in which the work of the Organization was conceived and carried out, the action and methods of the Organization, and the forms of collaboration of the various countries. Its work was twofold. On the one hand, the permanent work, such as the Epidemiological Information Service, the Committee on Biological Standardization, and the Malaria Committee, as well as work in connection with international conventions such as the Opium Conventions. On the other hand, the Organization conducted inquiries into current questions such as nutrition, housing, rural hygiene and rural life, and physical training. To this was also added the present campaign against epidemics in China. Close relations on questions of health and social policy existed with the International Labour Office, the International Institute of Agriculture, and the Economic and Financial Organizations of the League. He felt that there was need for a wider dissemination of the results achieved by this Organization, and suggested that a bulletin covering its activities should be published. The United Kingdom delegate supported the proposal for the creation of a technical information bulletin 011 the work of the Health Organization, as did also the delegates of India, Egypt, and China. The delegate of India suggested that States members should reissue the publication in their countries. The Indian delegate outlined the progress that had been made in his country, and said that the 1937 Conference on Rural Hygiene in Java had been an event of first-class importance for Eastern countries. India had already taken steps to put into force the recommendations made by that Conference, and he described the work done by the authorities in the sphere of public health on the basis of the five main divisions of the Conference's report—health and medical services; teaching of medicine; rural reconstruction, and collaboration of the various organs concerned; sanitation and sanitary engineering; and measures for combating malaria, plague, tuberculosis, and leprosy. The Egyptian delegate mentioned the creation of travelling health units in his country, whose essential tasks were to educate the general population, and especially children of school age, and to provide first aid. These units were preparing the way for local health services. Much had also been done in Egypt in combating malaria, and he submitted the following proposals:— (1) That typhus be placed on the agenda of the European Conference on Rural Life; (2) That the Health Committee should give further consideration to the resolution passed at the Bandoeng Conference concerning mass vaccination as_ a means of combating plague. Experience in Egypt had shown the futility of such action, and his country would like to be informed of the results achieved from the application of these recommendations: (3) That the High School for International Health Studies offered by the French Government would soon be opened. The Chinese delegate was warm in his praise of the work undertaken in China by the Health Organization. A year ago the League of Nations sent three anti-epidemic missions, and he paid tribute to the efforts and devotion of the staff of these missions. The Health Section had also rendered a great service to the Chinese Government when the latter had asked for six million doses of anti-cholera vaccine to be sent, and within a month of their request the Health Organization had collected eight million doses. He asked that the anti-epidemic missions should continue their work for another year. The Seventh Committee took note of the work accomplished by the Health Organization in the control of disease, the development of health, studies on housing and nutrition, &c., and submitted the following resolution, which was duly adopted by the Assembly (Document A. 58, 1938, III) : — " The Assembly— "(1) Noting with satisfaction that the activities of the Health Organization are being carefully planned in order to assist national health administrations in their efforts to' control disease and to improve the standard of health: " Places on record its appreciation of the continuous and far-reaching activities of the Health Committee; and " Approves the work accomplished since September, 1937. "(2) Approves the conclusions contained in the report of the Seventh Committee, particularly as to the desirability of publishing a periodical giving the essential facts of the Health Organizations's activities; " And refers the suggestions of a technical character contained in the Rapporteur's report to the Health Committee."

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