Joining nations 1947-1990

FOUR

CONSOLIDATION, 1954-1961

WHEN Dr Biers took over the Presidency at the close of the 1954 Assembly, he had good reasons for feeling satisfied with the state of the IIW. The Institute had just held its most prestigious assembly to date - perhaps the most prestigious in its whole history - with an attendance of 470, by comparison with approximately 270 in 1952 and 1953· Vexed technical questions had just been resolved with the amalgamation of two Commissions and the creation of two others. The US and German delegations had been fully integrated, the former providing the President and the latter the Chairman of one of the new Commissions as well as of that resulting from the amalga– mation which had just taken place. Three important works by the Institute were on sale and a number of significant documents had been issued to the member societies for publication. Finally, satisfac– tory relations were being maintained with a number of influential international bodies. Inevitably new problems arose, but the principal ones, while difficult to resolve, could be viewed with a degree of satisfaction. Approaches concerning membership were received from certain countries in Eastern Europe. It is difficult now to imagine the degree of suspicion and fear which in 1954 dominated the relations between the then Soviet Union and its allies on the one hand, and the Western powers, represented in the IIW, on the other. In July l 954 an ·application for membership was received from the Czechoslovak Welding Institute and was followed by a verbal enquiry from the German Democratic Republic. Subsequently, just before the 1955 Assembly in Switzerland, approaches were received from the Soviet embassies in Berne, London and Paris, as a result of which a del– egation of four Soviet observers attended the l 95 5 Assembly. The upshot was that Czechoslovakia, together with Poland and Turkey, was elected to membership in 1956, Rumania in 1957, the USSR and also the Argentine in 1958 and the GDR only in 1973, after

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