FIRST PLENARY MEETING
PREMIERE SEANCE PLENIERE
PRIMERA SESION PLENARIA
(26 November 1981)

The First Plenary Meeting was opened at 09.45 hours,
M.S. Swaminathan, Independent Chairman of the Council, presiding

La première séance plénière est ouverte à 9 h 45 sous la
présidence de M.S. Swaminathan, Président indépendant du Conseil

Se abre la primera sesión plenaria a las 09.45 horas bajo la
presidencia de M.S. Swaminathan, Presidente Independiente del Consejo

B. SHAIB (Nigeria): Mr. Director-General, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, as you know, a new Independent Chairman was elected by Conference the other day at the end of my own term of office. It is the tradition here for the outgoing Chairman to open the Council and then hand over to the elected Chairman who will then proceed. All the speeches have been made, both here and in Council with regards to myself and in Conference in regards to the new Chairman as well, by the Director-General, by yourselves, your representatives, etc. Therefore, this ceremony is really to hand over.

There is one thing while I still have this seat that I would like to say because when a tribute was paid to the Deputy Director-General, Dr. Ralph Phillips, in Conference because of his coming retirement I was not there and this is because I did no know. This Council owes a great deal to Dr. Phillips and I would have liked to have been there to speak on behalf of you my thanks and gratitude to Dr. Phillips as others have done. I am sure that Dr. Phillips will go down in the FAO history as one of those most dedicated officers, Delegate Officer, and in the end as an historian and I am very glad the Conference has agreed to have his photograph put up in the Library. This I want recorded so that the Council's own attitude and gratitude is reflected.

Having said that I would like to come back to my successor, to Dr. Swaminathan. He is going to walk a very long journey from today. I have been down that journey, and before me Ambassador Gonzales Bula Hoyos has been down the journey and before him Professor Cépède, etc., as along the wall there. I can assure Dr. Swaminathan that the journey is sometimes very difficult and rough but he can take comfort in that, as I found and as my predecessors found, he has two groups always with him. The first group is the Director-General and his colleagues in the Secretariat, they have always been ready to help, ready to assist and ready to give whatever support necessary to make his work easy; certainly they did do this for me. The other group, of course, is the members of the Council themselves without whose cooperation it would be impossible for the Chairman to operate. I have found along my journey that members of the Council have been extremely helpful to me, and very understanding and they did all they could to make my work easy. I am quite sure that they will do the same thing for Dr. Swaminathan and I now have the pleasure to ask Dr. Swaminathan to come up to the Podium to take over.

Applause
Applaudissements
Aplausos

CHAIRMAN: I think the first task is to use the gavel which has been handed over to me.

Mr. Director-General, distinguished members of the Council, other participants, ladies and gentlemen, while accepting this high honour the other day I mentioned my feelings of inadequacy to shoulder this • heavy responsibility but nevertheless your trust and confidence should serve as a source of strength and I shall do my best to prove worthy of this trust.

As Dr. Bukar Shaib has said already, much has been said about both him and me. I feel that we should get on with the task, the Agenda before us but nevertheless I want to once again express my sincere gratitude to the outgoing Chairman, Dr. Bukar Shaib, for his kind words and he has also been good enough to brief me how to function in this, position and this I am sure will be of great help.

I am particularly encouraged to find in the audience today not only our Chairman of the whole Conference, the Honurable Minister from Argentina, but two of the outgoing Chairmen of the Council, Dr. Bula Hoyos and Dr. Bukar Shaib, and many other very eminent members. I think representation at the Council meetings at the highest level will certainly enhance the effectiveness and the importance of the Council and I am indeed grateful that there is such a distinguished participation at today's meeting.

You all have the Agenda before you, Document CL 81/0D/1, the Order of the Day. Now there is a small addition to the programme today. Under Item 8, Any Other Business, we have the Site of the Ninth Forestry Congress 1984. There will be an additional item, Appointment of the Deputy Director-General.

We Lave passed a Resolution at the Conference expressing our deep admiration and appreciation of the services rendered by Dr. Ralph Phillips and you know that the time has come for finding a successor. I would suggest that after Item 1, when we come to Item 2 we will take up first the election of three Vice-Chairmen for today's Council meeting and then proceed to the appointment of the Deputy Director-General. The rest of the Agenda will be as it is. I hope this will meet with the approval of Council Members.