THE FUTURE OF ASIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20288, 22 June 1929, Page 17

THE FUTURE OF ASIA.

NEW LABO UR| • REFORMS. WORK OF LEAGUE OF NATIONS. The work which the League of Nations is doing to improve industrial conditions in Asia formed the subject of an address given by the Rev. A. W. McMillan, before the Auckland branch of the League of Nations Union yesterday. Mr. Bernard Martin presided. Mr. McMillan, who is leaving next month to take up the appointment of inspector of schools in Fiji, said there was a tendency among people-in the Antipodes to regard the League of Nations solely as an instrument for the prevention of war in Europe, but its labour-reforming activities among'the teeming millions of Asia would open up a new' perspective. Asia loomed ominously at the door of New Zealand and Australia, but in the League of Nations the white people in the Pacific had the finest insurance policy possible. Through its Labour Bureau the League was creating a cleaner conscience regarding the condition of labour in the East, as might be seen in the new factory acts. introduced in Asiatic countries. British ■< ; India, for instance, was insisting on a regulation of the hours of employment, with the observance of a weekly holiday ; on Sundays. No woman or child under the ago of 12 was permitted to work before 5.30 a.m. or after 7 p.nr. No. adult could work more than 11 liours a day or 60 hours a week, and no child more than six hours a day. Compared with white standards that might not seem very satisfactory but it w.ls a great : advance on the conditions that hitherto prevailed. The League was also doing a valuable constructive work, quite apart from the 'prevention of war, in building a new, better and healthier world, and in Asia it was doing research work in iconnection with malaria and leprosy and was taking action to abolish illicit ti'affic in firearms and drugs and while slavery. China, with its immense resources in industrial and man power, was rapidly achieving stable government. Japan had revolutionised her industry and had her linger on tho pulso of the world. She watched and missed nothing. Betweejj Jerusalem and uokio was to be found the homo of the most ancient civilisations, tho birthplace of all tho groat religions, of art, literature and culture, where lived a most intelligent species of mankind, second to none in the world—and ho spoke with the experience of halt a lifetime spent in Asia. The problem of the minorities of Europe faded into insignificance before the great, problem of population and expansion .in. the East, before the question whether 400,000,000 people were to bo taxed for the manufacture of destructive armaments'tor construe-/ tiva living. Look a generation ahead and it. would be realised that the greatest need J of the dav was whole-hearted co-operation between the great nations, especially Asia.