information was needed for the purpose of finding appropriate sets of weights. 57. For items within the subcategory of operations and maintenance, no quantity data were asked for, as it was decided to weigh all such items equally within their respective sub-subcategory. Continuous efforts were, however, made to specify all items in such a way as to obtain price data that would be comparable among dountries. 58. The structure of the questionnaire and all items included therein can be found in table 1. In response to its requests on operatinq costs, the Group received a qreat deal of relevant and comparable information from all participatinq countries. A few items turned out to cause problems of interpretation and were therefore later omitted from the list, but on the whole, the auestionnaire proved to be suitable for its purpose. 59. The information concerning conscripts that was obtained initially, however, turned out to be less than sufficient when the Group was faced with the particular problems involved in comparing such different personnel categories as conscripted and enlisted privates. The following reasons may explain why this is both an important and difficult issue: (a) Fundamentally different principles of compensation are applied in the two systems, causing wide disparities in rates of pay; (b) The military roles and capability of conscripted and enlisted privates are not fully identical; (c) Privates are by far the most numerous rank. 60. The Group beqan by considering two different approaches, both of which proved to have major shortcomings. In the first one, conscripted and enlisted privates were treated as separate items. This meant that their prices were not compared directly and countries with voluntary enlistment were considered to have purchased 3ne type of qoods with its own price level and countries with conscription, another type of qoods with another price level. To the extent that conscripted and 
**Analysis**
The text appears to be discussing the collection and analysis of data related to military personnel costs, including operations and maintenance expenses. The focus is on comparing costs across different countries, which suggests an international context. The text also mentions the challenges of comparing conscripted and enlisted privates, which implies a military context.

**Category**
Employment, International trade