UN Visiting Mission

4 Delegates

6 Secretaries

UN Visiting Mission Is On Its Way

THE United Nations Visiting Mission for 1956 will be led by T . an ™ ex T ;P overnc)r of Nigeria, Sir John McPherson, who is now the P erm anent representative on the Trusteeship Council.

The other three members of the delegation are Mr. Daniel Massonet, of Belgium; Mr. J. Rolz Bennett, of Guatemala; and Mr. M. E. Chacko of India.

For the information of interested parties, the representative from Guatemala is called Mr. Rolz—that is Guatemalan custom.

These four delegates are accompanied by a “secretariat” of no less than six persons ; Mr, J. G.

Rapoport, Principal Secretary; Mr.

J. Lewis. Assistant Secretary; Mr.

H. T. Chu, Assistant Secretary; Mr. W. Maschler, Assistant Secretary; Mrs. H. K. Evans, Secretary; Mr. W. Hoffman, Administrative Officer.

The party will visit Trust Territories in the Pacific, including Western Samoa and New Guinea.

They will arrive in Rabaul, NG, on March 15, visit every district, except Manus, spend two days in Port Moresby and depart by air from Sydney on April 18.

They will be accompanied on their N. Guinea tour by Mr. A. A.

Roberts, Director of Native Affairs.

Presumably the boarding and victualling of this large party will again be the responsibility of District Commissioners in the remoter districts.

This is the third Trusteeship inspection frolic to the South Pacific in recent years; the current invasion is unlikely to produce anything more worthwhile than the former two. Meanwhile, the sober citizen is left to wonder why—if there has to be a Visiting Mission —it has to consist of 10 people. One energetic businessman could do the work of these four VIPs and their 11 secretaries per piece.

Except for a solid core of top flight representatives, the whole United Nations set up is becoming more and more the refuge of superannuated public servants and tired bureaucrats.

LATER: Actually, there are SEVEN Secretaries altogether. t The well-known Roman Catholic Missionary, Sister Mary Annette, returned to Papua-New Guinea on January 13, after an absence of nearly two years. Sister Annette was formerly in charge of the Maternity Hospital at Koki, Port Moresby. She will now take up duties in the Rabaul area.