20 
the time for resolution sessions (about 7h) not included. In the meetings held 
simultaneously we tried to avoid inclusion in both meetings of subjects of 
a similar nature, or of papers of great general interest. Work on the preparation 
of the programme was carried on in close cooperation with the commission 
boards, which sometimes had other points af view, such as for instance logical 
succession of papers in a commission meeting. Besides this, certain alterations 
to the programme had to be made during the Congress, as a rule at the request 
of the commission boards. Since we lecturers easily underestimate the time 
requirement — especially when there is simultaneous or consecutive interpre 
tation — there often occurred, in spite of the special alarm system, considerable 
exceeding of the times allotted, to the detriment of the discussion periods. This 
should be stated for the benefit of those who, quite naturally, expressed dissatis 
faction because some interesting discussions could not be concluded. On the 
whole, however, the programme appears to have fulfilled its purpose even if, 
for the reasons given above, it was relatively compact. Precisely for that reason 
certain recreative items were included, in the form of excursions, film per 
formances, and so on. Moreover, altogether 10 hours of ordinary programme time 
were left completely free for visits to the very interesting exhibition. It was 
impossible to allow more free time for this important purpose, but we assumed 
that many of the 339 programme items were of such a specialised nature that 
only small groups would participate in them. This proved to be the case. Without 
completely new principles for the congresses more programme time can hardly 
be allotted for the exhibition: we must rely on every participant deciding him 
self on the use of his time. 
The immense amount of material announced for the VIII Congress made 
the Council and the Delegate Meeting clearly see that the new Administration 
should try to achieve a certain filtering of the material and concentration of 
the programme on a few central questions and problems. The new Council 
with its executive group located in Great Britain also received the necessary 
authority for this by decision of the General Assembly. 
The abundance of the Congress programme is also reflected by the extensive 
ness of the publications and by this volume of the Archives which confirms 
the results of the Congress. 
At earlier congresses the participants have first on arrival at the place of 
the congress obtained a possibility of deciding from the titles on the programme 
which items are of particular interest to them. It was therefore decided at an 
early stage to print and distribute summaries of the papers, and this was done 
in the case of 177 papers. Stencilled summaries were distributed at the opening 
of the Congress for some additional papers. It was moreover requested that 
authors should submit any off-prints available in time for distribution before 
the Congress. This was unfortunately only observed in isolated cases and a large 
number of off-prints or publications containing several articles (e.g. Photo- 
grammetria) only arrived during the Congress or afterwards. On the other hand 
all the General Reports of the Commissions and the majority of the National 
Reports arrived in time to be bound for Part 2 and Part 3 of the Archives and 
to be available on the opening of the Congress. 
In an analysis of the »Archive problem» carried out at an early stage in order 
to find means of quicker publication, greater homogeneity and clearer presen 
tation, the following points of view were brought forward: 
1. Inclusion of off-prints of various types and lengths in reports of meetings 
is detrimental to clear presentation and complicates binding. 
2. Better balance is obtained if only short, clear summaries are included 
directly in the reports of meetings. Incorporation of all this material in one 
volume would enable rational printing and binding to be achieved.