Thames Star FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1935. N.Z. AT LABOUR CONFERENCE.

Thames Star, Volume LXV, Issue 19346, 1 March 1935, Page 2

Thames Star

FRIDAY, MARCH 1, 1935. N.Z. AT LABOUR CONFERENCE.

"With manaa toward* noaa; with charity for all; with firmnaaa in th* right* aa God fivaa ui to •at tha right."—Lincoln.

After an interval of five years New Zealand will once again be represented at the International Labour Conference in Geneva. The decision is welcome for several reasons. One is that, at a time when the outlook for post-war internationalism seems bTacker than it has been at any time since 1918, the International Labour Organisation has increased in strength and importance. In its earlier years it was suspected, both in Great Britain and the United States, of being a radical-socialist organisation devoted exclusively to the interests of the working classes. The depression, which has produced a very different attitude in theso countries towards labour problems, has also produced a change in their attitude towards the International Labour Organisation. The point is well put in one of the organisation's recent reports: "The regulation of labour conditions is no longer so much a matter of protecting the worker against abuse as a part oC a rational organisation of society. . . . Such questions as unemployment, wage rates, hours of work, social insurance, are not merely questions affecting the well-being of the worker, but are also bound up with the question of maintaining tho balance between production and consumption, upon which the soundness of any economic system finally depends." Undoubtedly it is the widespread appreciation of this fact that has brought the United States into the International Labour Organisation in the face of the Middle West's prejudice against Geneva. It must be hoped that it is a similar understanding of the significance of tho work that the organisation is doing that has induced the New Zealand Government to agree to the dispatch of a delegation to the conference this year. Another and more particular reason for welcoming the decision is that the International Labour Office has become a clearinghouse for information and statistics about unemployment and tho methods being used to combat unemployment. If the New Zealand delegation uses its time wisely, it should be able to bring back infor- i mation and ideas on this subject which will be of the greatest valuo to the Government and the Unemployment Board.