3. Address of Welcome
(from "Chairman's Report of the Seventeenth Meeting")
At the opening session an address was given by the Minister of State for
Scotland, Mr. E.G. Willis.
Mr. Willis said that conservation had not yet been sufficient to maintain the
whale stocks at a satisfactory level and that conservation demanded immediate
sacrifices if whaling were to survive and give an economic return.
The agreement at the Special Meeting that the Antarctic catch limit should be
reduced to 4,500 blue whale units for the next season and that reductions
should be made in the following two years to a level which would allow the
stocks to recover was, therefore, a very gratifying one.
Mr. Willis concluded by saying that he hoped all concerned would accept the
full implications of the situation and support the further reductions
necessary if the stocks were to be rebuilt from their present depleted
conditions. He trusted that, as a result, the foundations of a prosperous
future might be laid.
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