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Dear Colleagues:

	As you know arrangements for the 1975 IJCAI are proceeding.
As agreed at the last meeting, the next conference is to be held
in the Soviet Union, and the Soviets have proposed Tblisi (Tiflis),
the capital of Soviet Georgia.  While I have never been there, everyone
I know who has been to a conference in Georgia has been very
impressed by the hospitality, so Tblisi seems like an excellent choice.

	However, you will remember that when it was agreed
to hold the conference in the Soviet Union, we stated that this
decision was conditional on there being no discrimination against
Israeli delegates.  This is still a real issue as was brought to
my attention by the enclosed story in the \F1Stanford Daily\F0.
As you will note, the organization in question has a policy against
meeting in countries to which not all delegates can come, but
has apparently accepted a \F1fait accompli\F0 by the Soviet Union.
The same thing could easily happen to us.

	I have the following suggestion in order to meet our obligations
in this respect:  The Soviets should informally be offered the
following alternatives:

	1. Erik Sandewall as General Chairman of the conference
receive a letter from Keldysh or from the Presidium of the Academy
of Sciences of the USSR guaranteeing that all delegates will be admitted.

	2. The organizing committee monitors the situation and if
any legitimate Israeli delegate has been refused admission to
a scientific conference during the two months prior to one month
before the conference, the conference be moved to another location.
The alternative location should be in Europe so that travel costs
will be approximately as previously predicted.  The help of some
Israeli scientific organization can undoub+edly be obtained in
monitoring the situation.

	3. The Soviets informally agree that any Israeli who applies
for a visa two months before the conference will get it 
by one month before the conference.  If even one has not got it, the
conference is to be moved.

	Some people have expressed misgivings about holding the
conference in the Soviet Union, and, as you may remember, I favored
Japan because of Japan's greater accomplishment in AI.  However,
it would be wrong to reverse the decision made merely on suspicion
that difficulties will arise.

	If the American members of the IJCAI agree, I propose to
communicate this note formally on our behalfs to Erik and the
other non-Soviet members.  Then, with Erik's concurrence, I would
communicate it informally to the Soviets.  I think that this
would give the least offense, and would make it most likely that
Soviet scientists would be able to get the requisite assurances
from their government.  I think they will only be able to get these
assurances if it seems entirely certain to them that the conference
will be moved at the last minute if necessary.

				John McCarthy