A.—sc.

2. Whereas the bilateral treaties which have been entered into during the last ten years in regard to social insurance and which provide, as between the insurance schemes of the contracting countries, for the maintenance of pension rights are intended to protect the vital interests of migrant insured persons and their families : 3. Whereas the effect of the Draft Convention adopted by the 1935 Session of the International Labour Conference concerning the establishment of an international scheme for the maintenance of lights under invalidity, old-age, and widows and orphans insurance will be to promote the general and early acceptance of those methods upon which the bilateral treaties are based, and to secure international recognition of the rights of migrant insured or pensioned persons : . Whereas it is moreover urgent, with a view to facilitating and expediting the putting into operation of the international scheme for the maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age, and widows' and orphans' insurance, that a systematic collection and study should be made of the legal, technical, and administrative rules laid down in the bilateral treaties and of the experience gained in their application : The Conference requests the Governing Body to instruct the International Labour Office to prepare, with the help of expert advice, a collection of the international treaties and the texts of laws and regulations whose object is to provide for the protection of migrant persons insured or pensioned under social-insurance schemes which would contribute to the general adoption of the principle of the maintenance of rights under invalidity, old-age, and widows' and orphans' insurance. The resolution was adopted. Resolution concerning Indigenous Workers, submitted by Mr. Sen, Indian Workers Delegate. The Committee, after hearing the author of this draft resolution, decided to transmit it to the Conference. The text of the draft resolution is as follows : — The Twenty-third Session of the International Labour Conference Notes with satisfaction that the Governing Body of the International Labour Office has afiorded the Conference an opportunity of continuing its work for the protection of Native labour by placing the question of " the regulation of contracts of employment of indigenous workers " on the agenda of the Twenty-fourth Session : But considering that, even after the adoption of a Draft Convention concerning the contracts of employment of indigenous workers, there will remain a number of special problems of the life and labour of these workers which should be dealt with by international regulations : Requests the Governing Body to instruct the International Labour Office to study, in consultation with the Committee of Experts on Native Labour, those special problems that may appear suitable for international regulation, and, in particular, the problems of wages (methods and periodicity of payment, advances, deferred pay, remittances to dependants, truck system, legal protection), housing (compounds, accommodation for families, provision of gardens for cultivation of foodstuffs), rations, and the protection of the health of the workers, with a view to the placing of an item dealing with these problems on the agenda of a future session of the Conference. The resolution was adopted. Draft Resolution concerning Women Workers, submitted by Mr. McGrady and Miss Abbott, Government Delegates of the United States of America. The Committee, after hearing Miss Abbott, one of the authors of the resolution, decided to transmit it to the Conference. The text of the draft resolution is as follows : — Whereas, in view of the social and political changes of recent years and the fact that women workers have suffered from special forms of exploitation and discrimination in the past, there is need to re-examine their general position; and Whereas it is for the best interests of society that, in addition to full political and civil rights and full opportunity for education, women should have full opportunity to work and should receive remuneration without discrimination because of sex, and be protected by legislative safeguards against physically harmful conditions of employment and economic exploitation, including the safeguarding of motherhood ; and Whereas it is necessary that women as well as men should be guaranteed freedom of association by Governments and should be protected by social and labour legislation which world experience has shown to be effective in abolishing special exploitation of women workers : therefore be it Resolved that the Twenty-third Session of the International Labour Conference, while recognizing that some of these principles lie within the competence of other international bodies, believes them to be of the greatest importance to workers in general and especially to women workers ; and therefore requests the Governing Body to draw them to the attention of all Governments, with a view to their establishment in law and in custom by legislative and administrative action. The resolution was adopted,

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