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INTRODUCTION The fourth session of the General Conference of UNESCO was held in Paris from 19 September to 5 October, 1949. New Zealand was represented by two delegates, Sir James Shelley, late Director of Broadcasting (leader of the delegation), and Dr. J. C. Beaglehole, Senior Research Fellow and Lecturer in Colonial History, Victoria University College. They were accompanied by Mrs. D. Croucher, of the staff of the High Commissioner in London, as secretary. This is the smallest delegation New Zealand has ever had at a UNESCO Conference, and the burden was correspondingly great. Fortunately there was no night sitting, or it would have been unbearable. Mr. D. Cairns, the Secretary of the National Commission for UNESCO in New Zealand, was to have been a member of the delegation, but most unfortunately had to return home shortly before the Conference began. This was all the more unfortunate,, as Mr. Cairns had not only been a delegate to the third session of the General Conference at Beirut, but had just spent some time at UNESCO House, acquiring a thorough grasp of the work, and could have given his colleagues a great deal of useful information, without which they were at times working in the dark. As it was, both delegates and their secretary were completely new to UNESCO Conference work. There was thus re-emphasized two lessons which we wish to put in the forefront of our report. The delegation, indeed, hardly needed to learn them, for the National Commission has been well aware of their . significance since the earliest meetings of the Conference. First, if New Zealand is to play a proper part at any UNESCO Conference, its delegation must be adequate—and a delegation of two is quite inadequate. It is not simply a matter of being present at so many formal meetings—as any one who has attended this sort of international Conference and tried to discharge his duties conscientiously knows only too well. There is much informal but none the less tiring work to be done, discussion and consultation and drafting ; while, if a country is to get the best out of the Conference, it is highly desirable for its delegates to see something of the members of other delegations, apart from the work of the Conference narrowly conceived. On this occasion this sort of meeting was simply impossible. Again, there is an enormous amount of paper to be read. A great mass of this, important for current discussion, could not be adequately perused.