74 
FINAL PLENARY SESSION 
treated, with a certain levity; and I will try to bear this honour with equanimity 
and not allow my head to be turned by it. 
The other honours you have seen fit to bestow upon me - Vice-President of 
the Society, and Chairman of the Statutes Committee - 1 view with equal emotion, 
but emotion of a very different kind. These posts will entail much work; but also 
many pleasures. 1 accept them with alacrity and promise to do my best in them. 
Our immediate task is now accomplished, the task of our four-yearly Con 
gress, and l have therefore a very pleasant duty to perform. I have to give thanks 
to the many people here in England who have helped us to organize it. If I were 
to name them all I should certainly leave out some; that sounds a little Irish, but 
you know what I mean. First, I must thank the Congress Director, Colonel Angwin 
(applause) and his staff, particularly his Registrar, Miss Preston. (Applause.) I must 
thank the folk in the Travel Bureau, in Wireless and Cable Office, and in the Book 
stall. They have been there for our benefit in the outer hall. Then, working with 
and beside them is a vast army of voluntary workers. Perhaps, first and foremost, 
you would wish me to make mention of the Ladies Committee, their two charming 
Chairwomen and the ladies of that Committee who have worked so hard. You can 
really have little idea how much they have accomplished. You have enjoyed the 
fruits, but the work behind, I know very well, has been extremely hard and arduous; 
and they have given their time and their leisure without stint. They worked, not 
merely for the benefit of your junkettings, which were mentioned so amusingly last 
night by Sir Lindor Brown as being of such positive value, but also to help you in 
a thousand and one other ways. 
I want to mention the interpreters and the recorders. I think they have done 
a magnificent job. And hidden in the basement all along have been the tape-recording 
operators monitoring our words. Working closely with them and closely with the 
Presidents of Commissions have been those indefatigable technical liaison officers. 
Their work has been heavy, 1 know, but it has been invaluable. I am not going to 
extend the list any further. 1 ask those many other helpers who have not been 
mentioned to accept our thanks which, I can assure them, are most heartily given. 
(Applause.) 
I would ask this Congress formally to pass one further vote of thanks: our 
thanks to the authorities of this great University, which, with your permission, 1 will 
communicate to them. (Applause.) 
And since I now experience a certain lightness, not to say frivolity, of mood, 
I am going to thank Sir Alexander Killick for the marvellous dinner he arranged 
last night in Guildhall. (Applause.) 
Prof W. Schermerhorn: A number of gentlemen have asked me to fulfil a 
task, not only on their behalf but, I am sure, on behalf of all of you. I want to 
say a few words to our British friends in general, and in particular to those three 
gentlemen sitting there in the centre of this long table. We have all experienced 
how well they have managed this Congress. 1 have attended now eight out of the 
nine of these Congresses, and perhaps you may feel that that must be considered 
a very doubtful honour. But it means that I am able to make comparisons a little 
bit. Fortunately, as is common in human life, you forget the bad things and you 
keep in your memory only the good things; otherwise human life would be impos 
sible. Notwithstanding the fact that I could tell of many good things about the 
past Congresses, it is true to say that we have experienced here how we continue 
to advance step by step. I notice two things that have advanced on parallel lines in 
our Congresses: the attendance at the Congress and the growth of aerial survey, both