184. The Commission discussed the most suitable time for holding Commission sessions. It was pointed out that these must not coincide with sessions of the FAO Conference and of the World Health Assembly and its Executive Board. It was therefore considered that the first three months of the year, and in particular the latter part of this period, would be the most suitable time, but the exact date would have to be determined separately for each session. The Secretariat advised that tentative arrangements had already been made to hold the Sixth Session at the Palais des Nations in Geneva in the last two weeks of January 1969.
185. The Commission discussed the provisional timetable which had been submitted by the Secretariat, following consultations with the Chairmen of the various Codex Committees and the appropriate authorities in the UNECE so far as the next session of the Joint ECE/Codex Alimentarius Group of Experts on the Standardization of Quick (Deep) Frozen Foods was concerned. The timetable was agreed to, subject to confirmation of the dates of the Fourth Session of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling and to a date being fixed for the Third Session of the Codex Committee on General Principles. In reply to a request that the meeting of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling be arranged to take place in the same period as the two other North American meetings, the Canadian delegation explained that it would not be possible to arrange this in the current year. The Commission thought that in future it would be desirable to hold the meetings of Codex Committee in North America consecutively. The Commission agreed that while the next session of the Commission, to be held in Geneva, would take place at the end of January 1969, arrangements should be made to have subsequent sessions meet in February/March, alternating between Rome and Geneva. The Commission endorsed the recommendations of the Executive Committee that Chairmen of Codex Committees should not overload agendas with too many standards to be considered.
Mr. J.H.V. Davies, on behalf of the Codex Alimentarius Commission, expressed the appreciation of the Commission and of its Members to the retiring Chairman, Professor Dr. M.J.L. Dols, Cabinet Adviser to the Government of the Netherlands. The Commission gave Professor Dols a standing ovation for his leadership and active support of the Commission since its establishment in 1963.
Reservation of the Government of Peru
The Government of Peru, by letter of 1 March 1968 from its Permanent Representative to FAO addressed to the Director-General, reserved its position regarding the conclusions of the Fifth Session of the Commission until it had had the opportunity to examine such conclusions.
