greater use of fertilizers was readily approved, with the suggestion that the recommendation be merged with Resolution 205 which had been approved by Commission II and which outlined more comprehensive and specific suggestions with respect to the greater use of fertilizers.

RESOLUTION 215: PERMANENT COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURAL CREDIT (MEXICO)

This resolution was combined with Resolution 146, Bolivia, to recommend the establishment within the Pan American Union of a permanent committee to provide the medium through which information on the operation of agricultural credit systems can be exchanged and also to promote such uniformity in systems as to facilitate operations with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

FINAL ACTIONS OF COMMISSION I

Six resolutions were finally approved by Commission I for transmittal to the Resolutions Commission, under the following titles: 1. "Monetary Stabilization and Exchange Rates for Agricultural Protection"

2. "Agricultural Credit Conditions as to Maximum Rates of Interest" 3. "Credit to Agricultural Experts"

4. "Inter-American Agricultural Credit"

5. "Agricultural Credit"

6. "Encouragement of the Use of Fertilizers."

COMMISSION II: PRESENT AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND ITS ADJUSTMENTS TO THE POST-WAR PERIOD

A. PORTION OF CONFERENCE AGENDA CONSIDERED Commission II of the Third Inter-American Conference on Agriculture was responsible for handling resolutions and studies concerning Present Agricultural Production and Its Adjustment to the PostWar Period (Section II of the Conference Agenda), a subject which was broken down in the agenda as follows:

1. Present status and future prospects for the production, utilization, and distribution of those commodities which play an important part in world trade, including wheat, coffee, sugar, cotton, hard fibers, rice, and vegetable oils.

2. Present status and future prospects for those crops whose production in the Western Hemisphere has been increased during the war, including rubber, quinine, insecticides, drugs and essential oils.

3. Study of existing international measures to promote the orderly

production and distribution of surplus commodities to the best advantage of both the producer and consumer.

The Commission established three subcommissions to consider the projects which fell within the foregoing fields. It was realized that the problems to be considered by the three subcommissions were in many respects closely related and that recommendations that might come out of Subcommission 3 could be more appropriately made after Subcommissions 1 and 2 had completed their work.

B.

DELIMITING THE COMMISSION'S FIELD OF ACTIVITY The Commission came to the conclusion very early during the course of its deliberations that there might be considerable overlapping between its field of responsibility and that of Commission III on Foodstuffs and Raw Materials and that of Commission IV on Markets and Transportation. It was, therefore, decided that Commission II would limit its consideration to economic questions relating to problems in respect of individual commodities or common to a group of commodities, and that it would refer projects concerning technical agricultural matters to Commission III ard those concerning general marketing or trade questions to Commission IV.

C. RESOLUTIONS AND STUDIES CONSIDERED BY THE

COMMISSION

After transmitting the aforementioned recommendations and studies to the other commissions for consideration, the following projects remained for consideration by Commission II:

109 .

Brazil.

Pan American Union.

189.

193 .

Costa Rica

Subject

Present State and Future Prospects for the
Production, Utilization, and Distribution
of the Products of Prime Necessity for
International Commerce

Investigation Concerning Crops of Strategic
Importance

Hule and Corn, an Excellent Combination
for Tropical America

In addition to the foregoing, there were transmitted from Commission IV to Commission II for consideration Resolution No. 195 of Guatemala on coffee prices, Project No. 190 of the same country containing statistical and factual information regarding the coffee price question, and Resolution No. 214 by Colombia on the subject of maximum prices for agricultural products.

D. CLASSIFYING THE RESOLUTIONS

The Commission worked from the beginning toward classifying the resolutions under consideration into groups based on clearly defined subject matter, and toward reducing the number and increasing the quality and coverage of the resolutions reported out by the Commission. The result was that the Commission sent forward only six resolutions to the Resolutions Commission. These dealt with the following subjects:

1. Production of Natural Rubber and Hard Fibers in America (Combination of Resolutions Nos. 141 and 144 by Mexico).

2. Development of the Production of Fibers in the Continent (Based on Resolution No. 59 by Haiti).

3. Studies Concerning Production and Consumption (Based on Resolutions Nos. 57 by Argentina, and 120 and 121 by Cuba). 4. Maximum Prices for Coffee (Draft Based on Resolutions No. 195 by Guatemala and No. 214 by Colombia).

5. International Commodity Agreements (Based on Resolution No. 191 by Argentina).

6. Orientation of Production (Based on a large number of resolutions considered by Commissions II and IV including Nos. 188 and 229 by Cuba, 191 by Argentina, 90 and 98 by Peru, and 225 by Ecuador).

E.

METHODS OF HANDLING THE WORK

The formal part of the Commission's work was done in seven meetings of the Commission, four meetings of subcommission 1, one meeting of subcommission 2, and two meetings of subcommission 3. Agreement was reached on what might have been controversial questions in private meetings among interested delegates prior to the

consideration of such questions either in the subcommissions or the Commission.

F. EVOLUTION OF RESOLUTIONS RECOMMENDED

As indicated above, the Commission sent six resolutions to the Resolutions Commission, as follows:

1. Production of Natural Rubber and Hard Fibers in America Subcommission 1, after a brief discussion, at its first meeting (on July 27) approved the conclusions stated in the Mexican study (No. 141) regarding rubber. These conclusions are as follows:

(a) The United States will determine, according to the domestic production and consumption of synthetics, the rubber policy to be adopted in the Continent;

(b) All the American countries should study the rubber problem; (c) It is advisable to study the rubber continental self-sufficiency. An International Committee should also be established to study said problem; and, finally

(d) The study in connection with the utilization of the rubber plants of this Continent should be continued.

At the only meeting held by Subcommission 2 (July 27), the Mexican delegate suggested acceptance of the conclusions reached in the Mexican study on hard fibers (No. 144). These were:

1. That the American governments study the possibility of concluding an inter-American agreement for commerce in hard fibers on the markets of the Continent, with adequate quotas for the several countries according to their production.

2. That the American governments develop their production of hard fibers to the limit of the consumption possibilities of each country, and in order to fill the export quotas which the said agreement may fix.

3. That the American governments stimulate the production of adequate machinery for removing the fibers from the wild textile species, improvement of the quality of the product, and industrialization of the hard fibers.

4. That the American governments come to an understanding in order to define the policy which they should follow with respect to the production of hard fibers coming from colonies whose workers have a standard of living considerably lower than that of our Continent and also receive much lower wages.

The United States representative on the subcommission took the position that it would be preferable to study the hard fiber situation in the same way as had been decided by Subcommission 1 with respect to rubber, i. e., without making any commitment as to the means, if

any, that might be adopted for the solution of hard fiber problems. This position was adopted by the Subcommission and it was decided that the delegates of Mexico, Argentina, and the United States would redraft the resolution for the purpose of effecting the necessary changes in the resolution.

At the fourth meeting of Commission II (July 30) it was agreed that the redrafted resolution providing for the study of the hard fiber situation would be combined with the resolution providing for the study of the rubber situation. This resolution, which was later transmitted to the Resolutions Commission, reads as follows:

The Third Inter-American Conference on Agriculture

Recommends:

That two inter-American committees, one to study the problems of rubber and the other the problems of hard fibers, be set up and convene at the earliest possible date in the city of Washington, D.C.; that said committees be composed in each case of representatives of the United States of America as principal consumer country and of other American countries which are potential producers of said products.

That the committees so integrated study the problems relative to the competition between the natural products mentioned which are obtained in the American Continent and those produced in other Continents, as well as the competition between these natural products and the synthetic products of a similar nature.

That the Pan American Union, after consultation with the countries concerned, prepare the corresponding agendas and fix, at the earliest possible moment, the dates for the respective meetings.

2. Development of the Production of Fibers in the Continent

The Haitian delegate requested at the third meeting of Commission II (July 28) that the Commission give attention to the Haitian resolution on packings (No. 59). This resolution would have provided:

That importing countries abstain from obliging exporting countries to use packings made with materials produced chiefly outside this Hemisphere, such as jute, to the detriment of those which are made with materials produced in this Hemisphere, such as sisal.

The United States delegate at the meeting stated that the resolution appeared to involve governmental intervention in a question that might more appropriately be left to private buyers and sellers. He said that the choice of bagging materials was a matter for decision by users of the materials to be made on the basis of cost and serviceability of the materials.