LONDON AND GENEVA

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19248, 13 February 1937, Page 5

LONDON AND GENEVA

minister to tour . LABOUR CONFERENCE (Per Press Association.) > WELLINGTON, this day. The Cabinet has decided to send :t Ministerial delegate to the International Labour Conference at Geneva next June, and early in April the Minister of Labour, the Hon. H. T. Armstrong, will leave for Europe. His wife will accompany him, •‘Except for the decision that I should represent the New Zealand Government at the Geneva International Labour Conference this year, arrangements for my departure have not been completed, said the Minister in an interview last evening. “It was thought at first that I would travel to London with the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. JSavage, but in view of the Labour Party’s twenty-first annual conference on Easter Monday in Wellington, and that Mr. Savage is to leave by the liner Arawa on March 27, it was decided to defer my departure till early in April. This will enable me to give, at the party conference, an outline of the industrial legislation and the future policy.” • Inquiries as to the likely date of sailing, showed that there is a direct ship leaving Wellington on April 7 for London by way of the Panama Canal. Also a ship will leave on April 6 for Sydney, arriving there in time to connect with the Orient liner Otranto on April 10. By going that way, it would be possible, if one left the ship at Marseilles and crossed overland through France, to arrive in London on May 11, a day before the Coronation, but a, final decision as to the date of sailing and the route has not yet been made. It seems probable, however, that Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong will go Home by way of the Mediterranean and overland through France to-Calais, After a few days in London, the Minister will proceed to Geneva where the Internatinal Labour Conference will bo held throughout; the greater part of June. Last year the Government was represented at the Geneva conference by Mr. It. McKeen, M.P. for Wellington South. Hitherto it hns not been considered practicable to send a Ministerial delegate to Geneva because, in normal circumstances, the New Zealand Parliament assembled in June. This year, however, the Parliamentary session will not begin before the third week ol August, thus affording the 'Minister of Labour the opportunity to attend an International Labour Conference.

It is admitted in Parliamentary circles that on this coming occasion Mr. Armstrong, with his formidable record of industrial enactments, will not only have much to talk about, but will he in a position to speak as one having authority.