consist of about ten members, six of whom are the directors of various national physical laboratories.

The Director and Assistant Directors are elected by the Committee, by secret ballot. The Director appoints the other members of the staff under regulations laid down by the Committee. The Director is authorized to take part in the Committee's deliberations. His responsibility for custody of the international prototypes is shared by the Committee; he is not permitted access to the place where the prototypes are deposited except on order from the Committee and in the presence of a member. The present Director of the Bureau is Albert Perard.

FINANCES

Budget. Article 6 of the regulations included in the convention signed at Sèvres on October 6, 1921, amending the convention of May 20, 1875, provides for an annual appropriation from members as of 1921 of 250,000 to 300,000 francs, the latter amount to be exceeded only by a unanimous decision of the General Conference. The Seventh General Conference, held in 1927, changed the maximum amount to 150,000 gold francs (approximately $49,000). This sum is paid by those countries which adhered to the organization before 1921. The contributions of countries which joined after 1921 are in addition to the 150,000 gold francs and presently total 16,113 gold francs. The Ninth General Conference in 1948 approved an increase in the maximum amount to 175,000 gold francs (approximately $57,170) but this increase is to become effective only when Germany and Japan, which have been in arrears, resume payments.

The International Committee draws up the annual budget within the limits set by the General Conference. The Bureau's budget for each of the calendar years 1949 and 1950 is estimated at 180,000 gold francs (approximately $58,800).

In addition to member contributions, the Bureau receives a small sum of revenue from interest on investments and fees for calibration services.

Members' Quotas. Article 9 of the convention signed at Paris in 1875 provides that contributions from the contracting states shall be computed in proportion to the actual population of each. This provision was amended in the new regulations of 1921 so that the contributions of the states with extremely large or small populations would not exceed or fall below a certain proportion of the basic budget. Article 20 of the new regulations fixes 15 percent as the maximum and one half of 1 percent as the minimum contribution.

Article 6 of the regulations as amended in 1921 provides that if any member fails to pay its quota for three consecutive years, the other

members will make up the deficit pending settlement of the account with the delinquent country. This rule was applied in the calendar years 1947 and 1948 because of the arrears of Japan and Thailand. For the calendar year 1949, members have been assessed supplementary amounts to make up for the delinquent payments of Germany, in addition to Japan and Thailand. The latter, however, has now paid its back dues and members will be reimbursed in 1950 for payments made to compensate for its arrear quotas.

The following table shows the regular assessments against members for the calendar year 1949 (excluding supplementary shares to compensate for the arrear quotas of Japan, Thailand, and Germany), as determined by the Ninth General Conference in 1948:

UNITED STATES RELATIONS

Authorization. The United States was one of the original signers of the convention of May 20, 1875, and ratified it on May 28, 1878. The amending convention, signed at Sèvres October 6, 1921, was ratified by the United States on September 19, 1923.

Payments. The United States pays its contribution to the International Bureau of Weights and Measures from funds appropriated to the Department of State for this purpose. Since the United States falls within the maximum class, its annual contribution amounts to 15 percent of the basic budget or 22,500 gold francs, equivalent to $7,350. For the calendar years 1947 and 1948 the United States was assessed an additional amount of 2,948 gold francs ($964) to help compensate for the overdue payments of Thailand and Japan. It was assessed a supplementary amount of 5,787 gold francs ($1,891) for the calendar year 1949 as its share of the delinquent quotas of these two countries and of Germany.

Agencies Chiefly Concerned. The Department of State is chiefly responsible for United States relations with the Bureau. The National Bureau of Standards of the Department of Commerce, however, deals with the technical details and works closely with the International Bureau.

Participation. The United States has made full use of the services offered by the Bureau. The standards of length and mass used in Washington are copies of those in the International Bureau and are sent from time to time to be compared with the originals. The metric system has been legal in the United States since 1866.

RELATIONS WITH OTHER INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

The International Bureau of Weights and Measures does not have any official relationships with other international organizations, but a formal agreement for cooperation with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is being negotiated. The International Bureau also collaborates on specific projects with such organizations as the International Electrotechnical Commission, the International Commission on Illumination, and the International Unions of Physics and of Chemistry.

BASIC TEXTS AND PUBLICATIONS

U.S. Department of State. Convention Between the United States and Other Powers Respecting Weights and Measures, Signed at Paris, May 20, 1875. Treaty Series 378. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1909. (20 Stat. 709.)

6 See Basic Texts and Publications below.

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Convention Between the United States and Other Powers, Amending the Convention Relating to Weights and Measures, Signed at Paris, May 20, 1875 Signed at Sèvres, October 6, 1921. Treaty Series 673. Washington, Government Printing Office, 1924. (43 Stat. 1686.)

International Conferences on Weights and Measures, Comptes rendus. Conferences of 1890, 1901, 1907, 1913, 1921, 1927, 1933. Paris, Gauthier-Villars.

La Creation du Bureau International des Poids et Mesures et son (Euvre (Guillaume) Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1927. 321 pp.

Travaux et mémoires, vols. 1-20. Paris, Gauthier-Villars, 1881-1934. The organization has also published various special documents in French or German, as well as a series entitled Les récents progrès du système metrique; rapport presenté .; for example, the 1913 issue (republished in the Bureau's Travaux et mémoires, vol. 15), the 1921 issue (republished ibid., vol. 18), and the 1934 issue (republished ibid., vol. 19).

International Council of Scientific Unions and Associated Unions

Legal domicile, Brussels, Belgium

Secretary, F. J. M. Stratton, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, England

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

The Inter-Allied Conference on International Scientific Organizations, which met at London in October 1918, adopted a resolution recommending the withdrawal of Allied scientists from existing international organizations and the formation of new unions which neutrals would also be invited to join. Each state was advised to set up or recognize a central scientific body capable of representing the country on an international council. International unions were to be organized in the major basic sciences to coordinate and develop activities hitherto scattered among numerous small international societies with overlapping functions and membership.

During the Paris conference in November 1918, the International Research Council was constituted provisionally. It was officially inaugurated at a meeting in Brussels in July 1919. Three of the unions were also organized at that time: The International Astronomical Union, the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, and the International Union of Chemistry. At the second General Assembly of the Council in Brussels, July 1922, four additional international unions were established for scientific radio, pure and applied 7 See Basic Texts and Publications, p. 127.

physics, geography, and biological sciences. In July 1946, three international unions were added for crystallography, theoretical and applied mechanics, and history of the sciences. There are thus presently 10 functioning unions. There was also founded in 1922 the International Union of Mathematics which was discontinued in 1932. The policy has been adopted of restricting the organization of international unions to those dealing with basic sciences. Where applications are received for the inauguration of new unions, the purposes of which overlap two or more existing unions, mixed commissions are set up instead by the several unions concerned.

The statutes of the International Research Council expired at the end of 12 years and were revised in 1931 when the name of the organization was changed to the International Council of Scientific Unions. In 1926, Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, and Turkey were admitted to membership in the general organization.

Following World War II, arrangements were made to readmit to membership all the central powers except Germany and Japan, whose readmittance is desired as soon as they have again entered the community of nations. Although the separate unions were able to continue a considerable portion of their activities during World War II, the Council, its mixed commissions and its unions did not resume operations fully until the end of the war. The fourth General Assembly of the Council was held in London in July 1946 for the first time since the General Assembly in London in April-May 1937. The fifth General Assembly is scheduled for September 1949 at Copenhagen. Meanwhile the annual meetings of the Executive Committee of the Council and the general assemblies of the individual unions and their committees were resumed in 1945.

At the present time there is within the Council a Committee on Sciences and its Social Relations. There have also been established mixed commissions on the following subjects: innosphere oceanography; physico-chemical constants; radio-meteorology; solar and terrestrial relationships; viscosity; radioactive units; and spectroscopy.

MEMBERSHIP

The following 39 states are members of the International Council of Scientific Unions (Icsu) through national research councils or similar central scientific bodies usually supported by governments, or in some cases (Bulgaria, Chile, Egypt, Morocco, Portugal, and Tunisia) directly by governments: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, City of the Vatican, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, Finland, France, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, India, Netherlands Indies, Italy, Yugoslavia, Mexico, Morocco,