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130. Accordingly, the Commission recommends that the scale set forth in Annex II be accepted by the Governments concerned for application during the financial year in which the Constitution comes into force and have so provided in Article XXV of the Constitution. In devising this scale for application in respect of the first year, the Commission has adhered to the view that in an international organization of this character no one nation should contribute more than 25 per cent, or less than one-twentieth of 1 per cent, of the total expenses. It has also provided that each member nation may deduct from its payment to the Organization the amount contributed by it toward the expenses of the Interim Commission. [Art. XXV.] F. MISCELLANEOUS 1. Legal Status 131. The Constitution gives the Organization the capacity of a legal person to perform any legal act appropriate to its purpose which is not beyond the powers granted to it by the Constitution. [Art. XV.] 132. The Organization is further given the immunities and privileges customarily accorded by member nations to each other, and, as a corollary of the bestowal of these immunities, the Conference is required to make provision for the adjudication by an administrative tribunal of disputes with its staff, which in the absence of the Organization's immunity from suit would be the subject of ordinary legal process. [Art. XV.] 2. Interpretation of Constitution 133. Provision is made in the Constitution for the reference to an appropriate international court of any question or dispute concerning interpretation of the Constitution, in such manner as may be provided by rules to be adopted by the Conference. [Art. XVII.] 3. Languages 134. The Constitution leaves the question of official languages to be determined by the Conference. Pending such determination, it is provided that the business of the Organization shall be conducted in English. [Art. XXIII.] G. NEED FOR EARLY ACTION 135. The Commission has given earnest consideration to the question whether the Organization should be brought into being at an early date, or whether its establishment should be deferred until after the war. 136. There are undoubtedly considerations in favour of the latter alternative. During the war, and probably for a considerable period thereafter, it will be impossible for the Organization to recruit all of the highly qualified personnel essential to full operation. It is a matter of the greatest importance that the Organization should not begin its work without the inspiration and direction of men of the highest calibre and competence in their fields. The success of the Organization will depend on the quality, honesty, and usefulness of its work, and on the extent to which, by its work, it can make its disinterested authority and influence felt. A false start would mean a handicap from the beginning. 137. During the war, also, many of the Governments and other bodies with which the Organization would work will be so preoccupied with other matters as to be unable to give it complete co-operation. 138. These are valid considerations to a realistic view ; but a realistic view calls for deeper analysis. In the period immediately following the cessation of hostilities there will be many serious problems in nutrition, food, and agriculture, in many parts of the world, calling urgently for solution. This period will be characterized by conditions of fluidity particularly favourable to the adoption of sound and thorough-going measures to meet these problems. There will be both need and opportunity for the kind of international advice and influence which it is the purpose of the Organization to provide. It would be lamentable if none were to be provided. Indeed, if this unique opportunity to realize some of the high purposes of the Hot Springs Conference were to be lost and the fluidity of the immediate post-war period were to be allowed to become set and rigid with the growth of vested interests, it might prove impossible, for many years to come, to give effect to the purposes of the United Nations as expressed in the Final Act of that Conference. To delay the beginning would be to delay the whole programme. 139. Personnel must be assembled; co-operative relationships must be established with organizations and Governments ; problems of nutrition and of the production and distribution of foods and other products must be clearly defined and studied, and their relative urgency must be determined ; a considerable amount of information must be collected and analysed. In sum, a good deal of preliminary work will be needed to make the Organization a going concern, ready to discharge its responsibilities. 140. These considerations greatly outweigh the argument against starting at this time. The Commission believes the main difficulty —assembling an adequate staff —can be overcome by developing a carefully selected nucleus of permanent personnel aided by a group of competent experts employed on a temporary basis—in other words, loaned by Governments and institutions. This might be desirable in any event; under present conditions it is the most practical procedure. 141. In the light of these considerations and because it is mindful of the dangers of a return to national policies of self-sufficiency, the Commission urges its constituent Governments to take, with a minimum of delay, the action required to enable the Organization to be brought into effective operation, on a nucleus basis if necessary, at the earliest practicable date. The sooner it is established, the sooner will it be able to bring to bear upon post-war problems of reconstruction the disinterested, international, and instructed advice and influence the provision of which is the essential purpose of the Organization. 142. The considered view of the Commission is that, whatever the difficulties, the Organization should be established as soon as possible, and that Governments in a position to do so should make every contribution in their power, by releasing suitable personnel and otherwise, towards making it an effective and authoritative nucleus for dealing with both immediate and longer-term problems of adjustment in food and agriculture. The Commission so recommends. For the United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture : L. B. Pearson, Chairman.

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