“WELL WORTH WHILE.”

Waikato Times, Volume 108, Issue 18164, 31 October 1930, Page 3

“WELL WORTH WHILE.”

GENEVA REPRESENTATION. MR ROBERTS RETURNS. "I «m of the opinion. that representation of New Zealand at Geneva is well worth while,” said Mr James Roberts, secretary of the New Zealand Alliance of Labour, who returned to Wellington by the Makura. Mr Roberts represented the New Zealand Labour, movement at the International Labour Conference held at Geneva earlier in the year. “ The advertisement that New Zealand receives from representation there is valuable,” he said, “and it brings us into economic touch with regard to Labour and social legislation in all the other countries of the world. That, of course, is of great usefulness and worth.” Mr Roberts said that he had found that unemployment w r as rife in all European countries except France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Holland. There was very little unemployment in the countries he had named. In Italy, there was a great deal of unemployment, about three millions were unemployed in Germany, from two to two and a half millions in Great Britain, and it was estimated that there were six million unemployed workers in the United. States at the present time- Those were the figures given by the Americ.an Federation of Labour, said Mr Roberts. Situation In France. It seemed that the absence of unemployment in France was due to the fact that there was a good balance of agricultural and industrial production. Added to this, France had lost a great deal of its manpower during the war. The French, too, by debasing their currency, had wiped out four-fifths of their internal national debt. In Italy there was unemployment, but it appeared that a great number of men were employed in military or semimilitary positions to enforce Fascist policy on the population. There was plenty of unemployment, too, in Austria, Czecho-Slovakia, and Poland. The consensus of opinion in Europe seemed to be that the causes of unemployment were mainly the introduction of labour-displacing machinery, and the lack of markets for export. In America, where unemployment was very bad, there*.seemed to be imme'nse prosperity. Under the surface, however, poverty was evident. There was quite a division there as to whether the present tariffs should bo retained or eased down. The Demoncrats on the whole, favoured a reduction of the tariff barriers, while the Republicans favoured an increase. Three Main Questions. Speaking of the Labour Conference at Geneva; Mr Roberts said that the three main questions which were d'scussed there were forced labour, the hours of work of sa'arie'd employees, and the hours of work in coal mines. The last subject was far the most important, in so far as the opinion was general throughout Europe that cutthroat competition between coal-min-ing interests was very serious. The general opinion in New Zealand that European workers worked under lower standards than those in the Dominion was quite wrong, said Mr Roberts. All the organised workers were on an eight-hour day, and many of the salaried employees were working a week of 44 'or 40 hours.