International Telecommunication Union

The eighth plenary assembly of the International Radio Consultative Committee (CCIR) was held in Warsaw from August 9 to September 13, 1956, under the chairmanship of Professor Pawel Szulkin (Poland). The assembly elected with an absolute majority Dr. E. Metzler (Switzerland) as Director. The assembly considered a report which dealt with the activities of the fourteen established study groups as well as proposals to reorganize the study groups. The Warsaw decisions modifying procedures experimentally for the future were the outcome of proposals by the Organization and Finance Committees, the CCIR Secretariat and of discussions of the problem in the plenary assembly. The study groups were to remain the same in number and the allocation of work was in general the same, though it was felt desirable to give a more precise definition of their terms of reference. Among the resolutions adopted by the assembly, a number dealt with the length, content and quantity of documents submitted to the chairmen of the study groups, emphasizing that these should be as short as possible, as few as possible and that they should contain only the minimum indispensable mathematical formulae or numerical and experimental data. The new system was also expected to improve the position of distant countries which had so far experienced great difficulty in receiving preliminary documentation in sufficient time before plenary assemblies. The Technical Assistance Committee recommended the creation of a joint CCIR-International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (CCITT) committee to consider the ways and means whereby technical assistance was at present granted and to make suggestions for improvements, as far as telecommunication was concerned, to the ITU Administrative Council.