Joining nations 1947-1990

A DIPLOMATIC CRISIS

39

the first and second Presidents, Messrs Goldschmidt-Clermont and Jaeger, were life members. The author was elected to succeed Mr Parsloe as Secretary-General. During l 966 the IIW's income from royalties more than doubled by comparison with the previous year, an increasing number of publications being available for sale, together with Image Quality Indicators which were manufactured under contract to the specifi– cations of Commission V. It was thus all the more disappointing for the Governing Council to learn in l 967, at the Annual Assembly held in London, that the Bibliographical Bulletin was in ever deeper trouble as a result of falls in the number of subscriptions and lack of co– operation by the national delegations in providing abstracts. A num– ber of remedial actions were taken but their success turned out to be limited. At the same time it was agreed that Commission IV Documentation, which was in charge of the Bulletin, and Commis– sion VII Standardization should merge and become Commission VII Documentation and Standardization. The l 967 Assembly saw the election of a Portuguese delegation and the award of the Edstrom medal to the Founder President. The same honour was conferred upon the Founder Vice-President, Professor Jaeger, in 1968 in Warsaw. The Warsaw Assembly was also significant in that, after prolonged study by the Technical Committee and the Chairmen of Commis– sions, the Governing Council reorganised the Commissions dealing with the welding processes. The main feature of this reorganisation was the creation of a new Commission IV - Special Welding Processes - to be responsible for the study of most of the more recently developed processes - in particular electron beam and laser - thus allowing Commission XII, heretofore entitled Special Arc Welding Processes, to concentrate on flux and gas-shielded electrical welding processes and to change its title accordingly. It was also in l 968 that the Governing Council elected Ireland to membership and appointed as President-Elect Professor Walter Soete who succeeded Mr Plummer in 1969. Professor Soete of Ghent University had been present at the foundation of the IIW and had then been appointed Chairman of the original Commission XI Stress Relieving. 1n· 1950 this had been amalgamated with Commis– sion X Residual Stresses and Professor Soete became Vice -Chairman of the new Commission presided over by Dr Weck whom he briefly succeeded in 1966. The new President consequently combined dis – tinction as a scientist and engineer with a comprehensive experience