INDUSTRY IN EGYPT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 142, 18 May 1936, Page 5

INDUSTRY IN EGYPT.

(By Ebenezer Blackwood.) “The active co-operation of Egypt in the International Labour movement will date from her entry into the League of Nations.” This sentence is taken from a recent speech delivered in Cairo by Mr R. M. Graves, Director of the Egyptian Labour Office. There can be no doubt that public opinion in Egypt- is eagerly anticipating complete independence at an early date. The recognition of a new International status by the country’s admission to the League will be a powerful incentive to reform in many directions. Yet it would be a. mistake to suppose that all progress is being retarded until the time when Egypt can take her place as a full and equal member of the comity of nations. Already Egypt’s relations with the International Labour Office of the League of Nations ha.ve been extremely interesting and fruitful. Nor have they been confined to the presence of Egvptian official observers at some or the' International Labour Conferences at Geneva. j With the rapid growth of Egyptian jindustrv lias conic a realisation that the country must conform to more enlightened standards of labour. Possibly agriculture will occupy first place for many generations to come. Yet it is highly significant that, in the past twenty years, industry' has expanded between sevenfold and tenfold. A million nersons axe engaged in occupations "varving from highly skilled mechanical trades to the simplest forms of physical labour. • Slowlv big modern factories are springing up side by side with the small workshops which are an interesting relic of the former days of the master craftsman. The advice of the International Labour Office lias been sought in framing the rudiments of industrial legislation. In 1932 the Director of the 1.L.0. paid a visit to Egypt for the purpose of surveying labour conditions in the country. .So far no more than a modest beginning has been made, but it is an earnest ot greater improvements to come. 110 laws have been passed dealing respectively with child labour, female labour and the limiting of hours of woik in dangerous trades. Since the effective enforcement of these laws presents a difficult problem, efforts are. bel "S made to institute an up-to-date sysl tem of factory inspection.