FACTORY LAWS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 2, 2 December 1931, Page 9

FACTORY LAWS

PROGRESS IN CHINA. Briefly there are two reasons for the establishment of the International Labour Office of the League of Nations.” said. Mr. "William Caldwell, of tlio League’s staff, in a statement issued in Canberra a few days ago. “One reason is the humanitarian one, and the other the more material consideration—the necessity for protecting advanced countries from the unfair competition of backward countries.

“From the Australian point of view, the most significant achievement or the organisation is the improvement which it has stimulated in industrial conditions in Eastern countries,” added Mr Caldwell. “India has reduoed her hours of work and has taken other measures for the stricter regulation of industrial conditions. Japan has taken similar measures, as, for example, the regulation of the employment of women and children.

Even in China, the beginning of Labour legislation is apparent. China has adopted a Factories Act, and is arranging the necessary measures for its enforcement. At present the International Labour Office has in t-nina an expert mission sent at the request of the Chinese Government to advise it about factory inspection. Industrialisation is bound to come in China, and the vital question is, shall that Industrialisation be accompanied in China by all the evils which attended the same process in other countries, or shall China profit by the lessons of the older industrialised countries? If the industrialisation of China proceeds entirely without regulation, then the menace to the rest of the world, and particularly to countries with higher industrial standards, will be immense. If industrialisation is accompanied by humane and reasonable legislation and regulation it will mean a rise in the standard of living of the vast population of China, and, consequently, an increased purchasing power of that population. This rise in the standard of living will probably be reflected in a demand for many products which

Australia, in particular, is able to supply. Therefore, it is the duty of all Australians, without regard to political creed, to regard with sympathy the efforts of the International Labour Organisation to raise the industrial standards existing in backward countries.”