LABOUR AT GENEVA

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19456, 21 December 1934, Page 9

LABOUR AT GENEVA

VALUE OF PARTICIPATION. DOUBTED BY AUSTRALIAN. (From a Correspondent.) N ' CANBERRA, November 14. Tlie Australian employers’ delegate to the International Labour Conference of the League of Nations, held at Geneva in June last; informed the Commonwealth Government in his report tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday that as far as he could see, the conversations did not serve any uselul purpose. Representatives of nations other than Australia admitted that their standards were,not equal to those of Australia, and it was considered .undesirable for Mr McDonald to speak on certain subjects because he might embarrass other countries.

“This to me,” reported Mr McDonald, “seems a clear answer to the Geneva Conferences, as we have greater overhead charges than any other country which is ip competition with Australia. * Conferences at Genova are of assistance to some extent, but they do not carry'any weight with nations which have to meet their own obligations and are out to capture markets. It, therefore, seems to me that it is not essential that Australia should be represented, thus avoiding expense in sending delegates.” The most important subject listed , for discussion related to reducing hours of .work, but a number of Governments,'.some of whom supported the proposed conventions in committee abstained from voting, and the neoessary quorum of 69 votes could not be obtained. As a result, the motion for adoption was not carried. The delegate of the Australian workers (Mr J. W. Roche) referred to this attitude as an “act of sabotage,” while the president of the conference referred to it as a dangerous attitude. Mr McDonald said he was 'definitely o’f opinion that to reduce hours by international agreement was not to the benefit of Australia, and therefore he spoke and voted against the project. Other nations, he considered, could not live -up to the proposal, and therefore it merely meant that Australian workers would have less work and Australian Governments would be embarrassed by attempting to meet something which would not be carried out by other nations. The discussion ended in the subject being postponed until the next conference.