SWEATED LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19092, 10 August 1925, Page 9

SWEATED LABOUR.

INTERNATIONAL ACTION. ADVOCACY BY WORKERS. (Received 5.5 p.m.) Reutor. LONDON. Aug. 8. An interim report of the committee which was appointed by the Labour Party to investigate tho question of sweated imports has been completed. It recommends international action being taken against sweating, for which purpose, it says, tho existing machinery provided in tho Peace Treaty should bo utilised.

This should be supplemented by the resolution of tho International Labour Conference binding tho signatories to cnforco a boycott (to bo only applicablo where an alternative supply is available) against goods produced by prison or slavo labour, or under conditions which do not conform to the Washington Eight Hours Convention.

The report concludes: "The progress of industrialism necessitates the establishment of international standards of labour and conditions. The manipulation of tariffs provides no remedy for sweated goods, as discriminatory tariffs leave untouched tho competition of sweated goods in foreign markets. Discriminatory tariffs drivo an offending country to produce even more cheaply and to sweat working people more disgracefully. Labour standards are thus degraded.

"The International Labour conventions provide tho elements of an international code of labour conditions. Tho persistent refusal of a nation to carry these conventions into effect should bo followed by the exclusion of its sweated goods by all the signatory States."

Owing to tho impossibility of fixing an international minimum subsistence wage owing to differences in climato and physiological needs, especially if Asiatic countries are included, tho committee does not propose that tho definition of sweating should include wages. It says, however, it is possible to call a convention to establish minimum wages machinery for different countries, and to raise wages in ail countries to a given percentage of the wages for average unskilled workers. An active lead in tho matter is required from Britain and other industrial nations.

Tho Labour paper, the Daily Herald, describes the report as a clear-cut and definite alternative to the protectionism of tho Conservatives and tho freo trado policy of the Liberals.