3. Address of Welcome
(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-First Meeting")
At the opening session an address was given by Mr. Norman Buchan, the Joint
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State of Scotland.
Mr. Buchan referred to the fact that this was the twenty-first meeting of the
Commission and remarked that in the ordinary course a twenty-first birthday is
regarded as a milestone calling for celebrations or congratulations.
He was not sure whether this would be entirely appropriate recalling the high
ideals and aspirations that inspired the Commission in its early days for the
rational exploitation of common resources under international control,
contrasting with events which had led to the withdrawal of two countries from
pelagic whaling in the Antarctic, joined last winter by another great whaling
nation.
But the flame started in 1946 still burned and he thought the Commission could
congratulate itself on the fact that but for its work the whale stocks in some
areas might well have been extinct altogether and that through the
deliberations of the Commission there had been a greater readiness among
member countries to recognize the danger signals and take action in time.
He trusted that with the renewed vigour of maturity the Commission would tackle
the continuing problems of conservation.
The important agreement reached last year to restrict the catching of fin and
sei whales in the North Pacific - the only large pelagic whaling area outside
the Antarctic - was perhaps a happy augury for the next 21 years.
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