The FAO Department of Fisheries would be approximately 

 double the size of the present Division after six years of orderly 

 growth and development. 



These expansion proposals are still, of course, just that— 

 proposals. The meeting that could make them a reality is the 

 Thirteenth Session of the FAO Conference which meets in 

 Rome this November. Should they happen to be accepted, 

 about one-third of the expanded program will take effect in 

 the next two years. 



Naturally, I and my whole staff in Rome are quite excited 

 about these possibilities. If events go as we hope they will, 

 we shall be prepared for even greater challenges and oppor- 

 tunities that will appear on the international fisheries scene. 



Nearly all its Member Nations feel that FAO has a strong 

 and significant role to play in world fisheries development. 

 Not the role of a superpower, a regulator of fisheries or a 

 dictator of policies. Rather, the role of leadership through 

 service: the collection and dissemination of scientific in- 

 formation, technical assistance, the promotion of rational use 

 of resources, particularly those of the high seas through the 

 promotion of cooperation between nations fishing international 

 waters, the promotion of efficiency and economy in the use of 



fish and its products, always to the end of the alleviation of 

 hunger and disease. These are difficult, challenging and 

 worthy aspirations. There is nobility in the concept and aspira- 

 tions of FAO, as there is elsewhere in the UN family. But, I 

 submit, a kind of practical and rational nobility — to help 

 every man feed his children as well as you and I would feed 

 ours. Not to share in scarcity but to promote plenty. The seas 

 and inland waters covering nearly three-quarters of the earth's 

 surface will play a role in human survival and welfare whose 

 importance we can only begin to estimate. 



I hope I have left you with a better idea of the role of FAO's 

 Fisheries Division. I would consider myself successful if you 

 were to share my interest, at least in part, in those tremendous 

 new possibilities for the expansion of this urgent work in inter- 

 national fisheries. 



Once again, please accept my thanks for the opportunity to 

 present these thoughts to such a significant gathering. From 

 what I have seen and heard here, and from the impressive way 

 in which your meeting organizers have done their jobs, I should 

 hope to attend many more North American Fisheries 

 Conferences. 



62 



