Cablegram WHO (E)9 (extract), GENEVA, 22 July 1948, 10.38 a.m.
SECRET
Your (C).[1] Six Regional Offices are intended and approximately [$US] 50,000 have been allocated to Western Pacific Area for 1949. This area as delineated by Assembly includes the following W.H.O. members - China, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand with probably associate members Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Malaya and Indochina. Regional Organisation will be instituted in this and other areas only when majority of members consent. China and Philippines are anxious for immediate inauguration with H.Q. at either Shanghai or Manila and these Governments may approach you direct. We have reserved our position as has New Zealand so that Australia has at present no obligation to join. We would suggest sympathetic consideration of joining Western Pacific Area or at least co-operation with China and Philippines in starting Regional Organisation.
_[1] In paragraph (c) of cablegram 17, dispatched 19 July 1948, the Government asked for information about amounts allocated to regional activities in the areas of the Pacific.
_
[AA : A1838, 383/1/2/1, III]