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economic recovery, and to the application of a monetary policy which will make possible the expansion of credit required for the speeding-up of such works and which will ensure the lowest possible rate of interest on the loans. The 1944 Recommendation oil the subject urges that every member Government should prepare a long-term development programme which can be accelerated or slowed down in accordance with the employment situation in different parts of the country. It suggests, too, that local and other authorities responsible for framing employment schemes should be assured by the Central Government at the earliest possible moment what financial support will be forthcoming so that preparation of plans may be proceeded with expeditiously with a view to the absorption of large numbers of demobilized soldiers as soon as they are available. In addition to the subjects covered in the three Recommendations reviewed above, two further matters considered by Committee 111 were embodied in draft resolutions which were duly approved and adopted by the Conference. The first of these resolutions draws attention to the bearing upon the problem of the organization of employment in the transition from war to peace of the following 1.L.0 conventions and recommendations :— The Unemployment Convention, 1919. The Fee-charging Employment Agencies Convention, 1933. The Employment Agencies Recommendation, 1933. The Unemployment Provision Convention, 1934. The Unemployment Provision Recommendation, .1934. The Unemployment (Young Persons) Recommendation, 1935. The Vocational Training Recommendation, 1939. The Apprenticeship Recommendation, 1939. The Vocational Education (Building) Recommendation, 1937. The Minimum Age (Industry) Convention (Revised), 1937. The Minimum Age (Family Undertakings) Recommendation, 1937. The Minimum Age (Non-industrial Employment) Convention (Revised), 1937. The Minimum Age (Agriculture) Convention, 1921. The Public Works (National Planning) Recommendation, 1937. The Public Works (International Co-operation) Recommendation, 1937. This recommendation urges 1.L.0. members who have not already done so to give consideration to their ratification and, wherever possible, to making effective their provisions pending ratification. The second —a resolution concerning co-operation in regard to the preparation for plans for public works in countries at present in enemy occupation- invites members of the International Labour Organization to make available to the Governments, universities, and research institutions of the liberated countries the results of experience gained and research undertaken in recent years with reference to the planning, organization, and maintenance of development works and public utilities and the education of technical experts. With this purpose in mind, the Conference proposed that the Governing Body call a meeting of the International Public Works Committee at the earliest practicable moment and include in the Agenda of the meeting the study and exchange of such information. Under the able chairmanship of Mr. Paul Martin (Canada), Committee 111 was a particularly hard-working Committee, the success of whose work is reflected in the fact that each of the three recommendations submitted to the full Conference met with unanimous approval. COMMITTEE ON ITEM IV OF THE AGENDA (SOCIAL SECURITY) The first three sittings of this Committee were devoted to a general discussion on social security, in the course of which interesting descriptions were given of developments in different countries. The draft recommendations proposed by the Office were in principle, subject only to reservations on certain points, approved by the Government representatives of a large number of countries, including (among others) Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United States. However, the difficulties,of applying immediately such far-reaching principles as those proposed in countries that have not yet reached a relatively advanced stage of economic development were pointed out by a number of Committee members, particularly by Latin-American representatives. Attention was also drawn to the fact that in countries at present occupied by the Axis some time would have to elapse before the principles recommended could be fully applied. Following the general discussion the Committee set up two sub-committees, one to examine the proposed recommendation concerning medical care, and the other, the draft reocmmendation concerning social insurance and related questions in the peace settlement. The remaining proposals contained in the report submitted by the Office—i.e., those relating to income security to persons discharged from the Armed Forces and assimilated Services, and to international administrative cooperation for the promotion of social security —were left to be examined by the full Committee. The two main Recommendations adopted (on income security and medical care, respectively) reviewed between them the whole series of conventions and recommendations which the Conference had previously adopted. The former " assembles and reformulates in a coherent manner provisions relating to cash benefits and supplements them in order to constitute the outline of an income security code." The latter, which for the most part breaks new ground so far as the International Labour Conference is concerned, incorporates what was considered to be " the most modern view of the exigencies of a comprehensive medical-care service which can well be, administered at all levels except the highest, independently of the income security system "(1). The recommendation on income security comprises some thirty general guiding principles which member Governments, in developing their social security systems, are urged progressively to apply with a view to the implementation of the fifth principle of the Atlantic Charter. These general principles are accompanied in the form of an Annex by detailed suggestions for their application.

(I) International Labour Review, July, 1944,

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