Extracts from the report of the Irish Delegation to the first assembly of the Provisional International Civil Aviation Organisation (Montreal)

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12. During the course of the Assembly there were frequent discussions between members of one delegation and another on the matters under consideration. A strong United States Delegation led by Mr. W. Burden, Assistant Secretary for Commerce who visited Dublin last Autumn, played a forceful role but they were very reasonable and accommodating in their approach to the problems under discussion. They showed us the utmost consideration and sought our views frequently. They assured us from the outset that they were determined to secure our election to the vacancy on the Council. China, Sweden, France and Peru were very well disposed towards us also. There was no hostility to us that we could discern.

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14. It is difficult to convey in a report of this kind an adequate impression of the atmosphere in which the Irish delegation found itself. The contrast with the Chicago Conference,¹ so far as the Irish delegation was concerned, was very marked. All through the Conference there were many expressions of goodwill towards the delegation and the country, and many expressions of high appreciation of (1) the active interest taken by the Irish Government in the development of PICAO and (2) the positive and constructive contribution made by the Irish Government to the development of international commercial aviation. There were frequent complimentary references made to the Dublin Conference and to the excellence of the arrangements made by the Irish Government for the holding of that Conference.² The impression left on the delegation was that the country's prestige in the field of international commercial aviation stands very high.