At its extraordinary session on September 15th the General Conference of UNESCO decided that its Third Session would be held in Beirut commencing November 23rd. It is anticipated that the Conference will last for three and half weeks. The composition of the Canadian Delegation is now, therefore, a matter of urgency.

You may recall that on May 28th a memorandum was submitted to Mr. St. Laurent outlining the respective advantages of (a) a delegation composed entirely of government officials and (b) a composite delegation of government officials and representatives of the various co-operating bodies in Canada. Mr. St. Laurent indicated at that time that he would favour a delegation of officials, kept as small as possible, even at the cost of not being fully represented on all the sub-commissions of the Conference.

In a letter of September 16 copy of which is attached,t Claude Lewis of the Canadian Arts Council has enquired whether it is intended to select the delegation to the Third Session in consultation with the co-operating bodies. Mr. Lewis has drawn attention in his letter to Article IV, paragraph 1, which stipulates that delegates "shall be selected after consultation with the National Commission, if established, or with educational, scientific and cultural bodies." It is judged that letters similar to that from Mr. Lewis will be received from other co-operating groups in the near future. The advantages of a delegation composed entirely of Government officials are:

(a) We would avoid the necessity of selecting representatives from among private bodies.

(b) Administrative problems would be eased.

(c) There would be no argument within the delegation on the question of a National Commission.

The selection of such a delegation would, however, cause renewed protests from the co-operating bodies in Canada. The advantages of a composite delegation of Government officials and representatives of a co-operating body are:

(a) It would be more representative of educational, scientific and cultural life of the country.

(b) There would be less chance of protest from the co-operating bodies.

(c) Its selection would be an appropriate way of rewarding the co-operating organisations for the assistance which they have given the Department in UNESCO matters.

I should be grateful to learn whether you consider that the basis for the selection of the delegation to the Third Session should be re-examined, or whether we should proceed to select a delegation on the basis of the principles approved by Mr. St. Laurent⁹⁹

E[SCOTT] R[EID]

⁹⁹ Pearson fut d'accord pour une délégation entièrement composée de fonctionnaires.
Pearson agreed to a delegation composed entirely of public servants.