(from "Chairman's Report of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting")

Japan spoke in favour of the establishment of a Credential Committee to secure that all delegates to IWC meetings represent the official viewpoints of the governments represented, and made a detailed analysis of the modalities of the amendments to the Rules of Procedure which would be required. The Netherlands stressed the technical nature of the task of examining credentials and believed that the present practice of an ad hoc Group of Commissioners appointed by the Chairman could be continued. Other members were also in favour of maintaining the status quo (i.e. in case of doubts about the trustworthiness of credentials of delegations the Secretary informs the Chairman and Vice-Chairman who then appoint an ad hoc Group to look into the matter). The Committee was not able to reach a consensus and therefore referred the matter to the Plenary.

There the Chairman announced at the first session that the present arrangement would be continued, since it had proved to be a sufficiently flexible system.

An extensive discussion took place on the interpretation of the agreement which was reached at the 34th Annual Meeting on the form of accreditation - namely written communications (either sent before the meeting or in confirmation of earlier telexes or cables) of the composition of delegations by governments. It was agreed that for this purpose by the term 'governments' is meant the Minister of Foreign Affairs (including: on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs), the Minister responsible for whaling or whale conservation (including: on behalf of this Minister), the Commissioner, the Diplomatic Mission.

It was noted that for the present meeting the Secretary had followed the procedure agreed by the Commission last year, whereby telex and cable messages are accepted subject to written confirmation from an appropriate authority in accordance with the interpretation of this procedure set out above.

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