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(8) Each member Government, subject to the approval of its constitutional bodies, is to contribute to the support of the Administration and to place at its disposal such supplies and resources which! may be decided upon by the Council and agreed to by the national Government concerned. It is agreed also that all purchases made by any member Government outside its own territory during the war for relief or rehabilitation purposes shall be made only after consultation with the Director-General and that, so far as practicable, such purchases shall be carried out through appropriate United Nations agencies. (9) The .Director-General is required to submit an annual administrative budget, to be allocated, upon approval, to the member Governments in proportions determined by the Council. (10) The Agreement finally stipulates (in Article VII) that while hostilities or other military necessities exist in any area the Administration and its Director-General shall not undertake activities therein without the consent of the Military Command of that area and unless subject to such control as the Command may find necessary. These, in brief, were the main, provisions of the Agreement signed by the representatives of the following forty-four Nations at the White House on the morning of 9th November, 1943, Mr. G. S. Cox, Charge dAffaires ad interim, acting on behalf of New Zealand:— Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Ethiopia, French Committee for National Liberation, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippine Commonwealth, Poland, Union of South Africa, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. On the day following the White House ceremony, delegates and their staffs departed for Atlantic City where the first plenary session of the Council was convened under the chairmanship of Mr. Dean G. Acheson, member of the Council for the United States, at the Hotel Claridge on the afternoon of 10th November, 1943. In response to the Secretary of State's request, the New Zealand Government had nominated the Honourable Walter Nash as representative of the Council for New Zealand, with Mr. G. S. Cox, Dr. R. M. Campbell, Professor A. G. B. Fisher, and Mr. B. R. Turner as alternates and assistants. Owing to circumstances which demanded Mr. Nash's presence in New Zealand, he was unable to attend the Atlantic City meeting, and Mr. Cox, the Charge d'Affaires, acted in his stead. The early sessions of the Council were devoted largely to matters of formal procedure, including the setting-up of nominating, credentials, and agenda Committees, and the adoption of temporary rules. The first important action taken was the election of Herbert H. Lehman, as Director-General of UNRRA. By virtue of his high reputation as a forceful and capable administrator and by virtue, too, of the experience he had gained and the first-hand knowledge he had acquired of relief and rehabilitation problems during his tenure of office as Director of United States Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation-Operations, Governor Lehman's appointment met with unanimous support. In accepting his appointment, Governor Lehman made clear his conception of the task entrusted to him. "In approaching the task which lies ahead," lie said, " one cardinal principle above all else should motivate our actions and govern our policies. That is the principle of helping people to help themselves, That principle must always be the guiding light of UNRRA." Two 'further principles to which he gave considerable stress deserve attention. First, the necessity of making UNRRA " a single-minded effort in which eveiy Nation does its full part willingly and without reservation" if only because " the fate of all United Nations' efforts to secure a world of security and lasting peace may well lie largely influenced by the success of this, their first joint effort in relief and rehabilitation." Secondly, that " in aiding the Governments and peoples of the liberated territories, it should be the' policy of this Administration to interfere as little as possible with the responsibility and authority of the recognized government of those areas. The purpose of UNRRA is not to substitute international controls for national controls." To expedite consideration of its lengthy agenda, the Council as soon as preliminary formalities were completed, divided up into four main Committees and fifteen subcommittees, corresponding .to main agenda topics. These Committees and the topics allotted to them were as follows:— Committee I: Organization and Administration. —This Committee and its four sub-committees considered the following items: The composition and functions of the regional Committees for Europe and the Far East, together with the Standing Technical Committees on Agriculture, Displaced Persons, Health, Industrial Rehabilitation and Welfare; rules and procedures of the Council and its Standing Committees; personnel policies and administrative budget. Committee II on General Policy and its three sub-committees dealt with the broad policies of the Administration, its relations with Governments and with other inter-governmental agencies such as the International Labour Organization, the inter-governmental Committee on Refugees and the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. Committee 111 on Supply and Finance had a sub-committee studying the financial and supply plan for the Administration and a sub-committee examining the procedures for ascertaining and meeting deficits in supplies that, had to be imported. It was also charged with setting up the Standing Committees on Supply and Financial Control and with defining their functions.

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