BACK FROM GENEVA

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 35, 9 August 1930, Page 9

BACK FROM GENEVA

LABOUR CONFERENCE

DELEGATE'S IMPRESSION

HON. T. SHAILER WESTON

(From "The "Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 3rd J 'y. The Hon. T. Sliailer Weston, M.L.C., j has returned from the International Labour Conference at Geneva, which, as president of the New Zealand .Employers' Federation, he attended as representing employers. Professor A. H. Tocker (Canterbury University College), it may be recalled, was there to represent the New Zealand Government, and Mr. James .Roberts (scerc-, tary of the New Zealand Allianco of Labour,) represented the workers of j the Dominion. Mr. Weston was the only nominee of the employers of the Dominion, while Mr. .Roberts was j elected, by private ballot, from a nunibe of nominees to represent Labour.

This is the first time New Zealand has had representatives at the International Labour Conference, therefore it was natural that one. should seek out the only ono of *ho three delegates who is now in London, and ask for his impressions. This was Mr. Weston. • "The experience," ho said, "was very interesting, for one met representatives from so many different nationalities and most of them are able speakers.

"It is questionable whether it is advisable at present to send a delegation regularly every year. It is expensive owing to distance and difficult for the samo men to get away. Unless the personnel of tho delegation ia the same for several visits it would not carry great weight. Sixty per cent, of the delegates at this conference have now come regularly for some years past, the majority of them since its inception ten years ago. Personality is everything, and your co-delegates have to get to know you, and weigh up for thomselves your qualifications before they are prepared to listen soriously to what you may have to say. This is parties larly the case among tho employers' delegates, representing nations which are in industrial and economic competition with each other. COMPARISON OF CONDITIONS. "So far as industrial relations are concerned," continued Mr. Weston, "New Zealand is ahead of all the nations represented other than Australia, especially in tho spirit of conciliation and confidence now growing up there between employers and Labour organisations. This is an all-important point, and it will be many years before other countries reach this position. She has developed along her own lines, which, as her delegates pointed out in the general discussion on the question of hours of work for salaried employees, were not the same as those proposed in-the Teport of the committee on that question. At the same time, although in view of the necessity for economy, New Zealand should for the present hesitate to incur tho expense of an annual delegation, it is most desirablo that her Government and the various labour and employers' organisations should keep in tho closest touch with tho reports and questionnaires issued by the executive of the Bureau International d.v Travail, commonly known as the '8.1.T.' This is the most useful work to New Zealand now being carried on by the 8.1. T. It has become a great clearing house for information upon all industrial and commercial matters. It has some very able and enthusiastic officials at its head- - Moreover, especially as regards Japan, China, and. India, and other pastern countries, it is an important safety valve against Bolshevistic and Communistic activities. It has already led to some important reforms in those countries relating to child and woman labour, and used wisely will do much to improve conditions in those countries. It was for this reason that the recent conference referred for consideration by the executive the calling of a meeting in the East of delegates frofci the various Eastern nations. The object of this was to bring the work of the 8.1. T. more prominently before the citizens of those countries." PROSPECTS OP THE BUREAU. Provided the permanent executive of the 8.1. T. proceed slowly and do not attempt too much, Mr. Weston thinks that this organisation might well yet become something approaching tho World's International Labour Parliament. He regards it as being fortunate at present in its permanent officials. The Director, M. Thomas, is a great speaker, shrewd, and actuated by the most humane feelinga. The Assistant Director, Mr. Butler, comes to the 8.1. T. from the British Foreign Office of which he was a distinguished momfter. This is a sufficient recommendation in itself, as the higher men of the British Civil Service are, with rare exceptions, men of intelligence and character, and thoroughly trained. The Government members of the British delegation were a sufficient proof or this. ' ' It was very pleasant to see how well Messrs. Tocker and Eoberts represented the Government and Labour on behalf of New Zealand. "It was quite evident," added Mr. Weston, "that the representatives of all nations both liked and respected them. Mr. Boborts, with his directness, humour, and manly physique, made friends with all at once. Mr. Tocker was a member of the Committee on Forced Labour, and Mr. Eoberts was on the Committee of Hours of Work for Coalminers, and also that for Salaried Employees. Mr. Weston saia he must say a word in appreciation of the tact and ability shown by Mr. Forbes-Watson, head of the British Employers' Delegation. Mr. Weston was a substitute delegate on the Committee for Hours of Work for Salaried Employees, and also a full member of the Committee of Section 408, which has to peruse and go through tho reports made by the various Governments as to how they have carried out during the year the conventions which they have ratified. The functions of this eommittco will becomo more important in the future as there is a growing disposition for the conference to insist that if a nation does ratify a convention it will he careful to carry out faithfully its promise. HOURS OF WORK IN COAL MINES. The conference concluded on 2Sth June in a dramatic manner. A considerable amount of feeling was shown. The convention for the international regulation of hours of work in mines, which, on 26th June, had been adopted in principle by 73 votes to 33, was thrown overboard in the final vote by its failure to obtain a necessary twothirds majority. The voting on this occasion was 70 in favour of the convention and 40 against. The wreckage of three weeks' discussion ar.d much earlier preliminary work by committees of experts was attributed by Mr Shinwell, the British Secretary fyr Mines, to a last-minuto change of front by the German Government. Mr. Shinwell, who had been rapporteur on this question, made no effort to disguise his disappointment in what had happened. He stated, with some feeling, that he wished the whole world to know why the convention had not been adopted. ,ii' The Australian Government delegate got up and suggested that tho president might, in his discretion, declare that thee was some doubt as to the accuracy of the counting of tho vote, itid that the various delegates flight Ye asked to loufirm the accuracy

of tho count as regards each individual. This very iuigeuious suggestion was not supported. In his speech after tho defeat of. the convention, Mr. Shinwell said that every attempt had been made to mako concessions to the view of the German Government representatives. Tho responsibility was now on theh shoulders. "I have no objection," lie said, "to a recommendation as to this mater being referred to next year's session. The question must be settled sooner or later, not only in tho in- 1 terests of the miners throughout the coal-producing countries of Europe, but iv the interests of every nation." WHY GERMANY REFRAINED. On the other hand, Dr. Stitzler (German Government delegate) immediately before the voting explained why his Government would abstain from voting. The reason was the rejection by the committee of a clause relating to overtime. "AYe have made an attempt, along with- certain other Governments (he said) to obtain a fresh vote on this question. I would ask you not to look at this attempt as an endeavour to impose our views on this point on the conference. Our only motive was tho fear that the convention in its present form, which is the result of a specially technical position, cannot find the necessary ratifications. When it proved impossible to have a second vote on the question we found that the German delegation was faced with a new position, with which it had not so far reckoned. It had not formerly considered it possible that a convention could be drafted which excluded all provision for overtime for economic reasons. In the circumstances Germany will have to examine afresh, with great care, its attitude to this convention."

On this point Mr. Weston pointed out that as the ratification by Germany of this convention was absolutely essential to the other countries concerned also ratifying, the attitude of the German Government delegates in voting against the convention was logical. It was no use raising false hopes that the convention, if adopted, would bo ratified by the German Government.

There was, of course, a good deal of generous hospitality. Among other social functions, the various delegations were entertained by tho president of the year, M. Nauhaim (Belgium), and by the employers' delegate from Poland, who was one of the two vice-presidents.