ticular interest to many non-self-governing territories, and it might well be regarded as an obligation and a responsibility upon the metropolitan governments themselves to bear this fact in mind in appointing their delegations for that session. All that was proposed by the Workers' group was that this point should be specifically mentioned in the letters of convocation.
The second part of the proposal of the Workers' group was to add to the recommendations in para- graph 35 of the report a request to the Director- General to prepare a new report for submission to the next session of the Governing Body based on- (a) a more detailed study of the possibility of granting membership, within the framework of the Constitution as it now stands, to those non-metropolitan territories which have reached a certain stage of political, economic and social development and which enjoy autonomy in the field of labour and social legislation;
(b) a study of the constitutional changes which would be needed with a view to granting associate membership to those territories; (c) the more immediate possibility of inviting certain non-metropolitan territories to attend the International Labour Conference as ob- servers, it being understood that they would be represented by full tripartite delegations.
As regards clause (a) of this proposal the Workers were prompted to raise the question in a more funda- mental form than in their original letter because they believed that there were certain distinct possibilities in this field. There were certain pre- cedents pointing in this direction. For instance, India had become a full Member of the International Labour Organisation while still under foreign domina- tion, although special circumstances and considera- tions had perhaps applied in that case. Similarly, there were the cases of Japan, the Federal Republic of Germany and Viet-Nam which had become Members of the Organisation when they were not fully sovereign powers; in the first two cases in virtue of the agreement of the occupying powers that the countries concerned should have sovereign control over the matters and obligations related to the International Labour Organisation, and in the case of Viet-Nam in virtue of an arrangement with the French Government that Viet-Nam should have control over such questions in so far as they affected the International Labour Organisation. The Work- ers' group therefore thought that in the case of a non-self-governing territory which had full autonomy in labour and social matters there was no reason why a similar arrangement should not at least be considered.
It was not necessary for the time being to pursue the question of the constitutional changes needed to grant associate membership which was raised in clause (b) of the Workers' proposal. This had been explained in the original letter sent to the Director-General on behalf of the Workers' group, and the necessary study could presumably be made only when the Governing Body had a further docu- ment before it setting out all the possibilities.
With regard to clause (c) of the proposal, however, the Workers' group saw in this suggestion the prospect of a more immediate closer association of non-self-governing territories with the I.L.O. than in either of the other two cases. Here again pre- cedents existed. In 1948 the Governing Body and
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the Conference ha. I decided to grant observer stać:
a a tripartite basis to japan at a time when the occupying powers controlled the whole of the economic, political and social system of the country and similar action was taken in the case of Westera Germany in 1949. Furthermore, the Saar Territory had been granted observer status by the Interna tional Labour Organisation for the past three years, and the Governing Body had before it at its present session a proposal for the continuance of that arrange ment. There was little essential difference between these cases and the non-self-governing territories which had autonomous powers in so far as the functions and competence of the International Labour Organisation were concerned.
The position of the Workers' group on this matter was entirely realistic. It had never suggested that its proposals should apply to all non-self-governing territories, but only to those territories which had autonomous powers in all or most of the matters with which the International Labour Organisation was concerned. The Workers believed that it was desirable to encourage the gradual development of a sense of responsibility in these countries and that they should be able to associate themselves more closely with the International Labour Organisation directly rather than through the metropolitan govern- ment concerned acting as a mere post office. The political situation could not be ignored; certain organisations and certain countries were doing their utmost to create discontent and disruption in some of the territories concerned, and the Workers' group believed that nothing should be left undone that might help to steer these territories on to the right course and to keep them on it, and that free associa- tion with the International Labour Organisation would help them very materially in their own endeavours to this end.
It was therefore in the context he had described that the Workers' group had made its proposals, and in the belief that possibilities existed for the future which had not been fully explored in the past, with a view to establishing an increasingly close relation- ship with non-self-governing territories Many applications for attendance at the International Labour Conference had been received both from workers' organisations and from individual workers. The contribution made by representatives of non- self-governing countries from all three groups at the recent Asian Regional Conference, which had been of a very high and statesmanlike quality and might serve as an example to the representatives of many sovereign countries, had provided sufficient evidence that such territories had reached a stage of economic, * social and political development which well fitted them to take their place in the International Labour Organisation and to accept the responsibilities that the Organisation placed upon them. It was in this spirit that the Workers' group asked the Governing Body to give serious consideration and support to its proposals.
Mr. de Rego Monteiro fully associated himself with the views on which the proposals of the Workers" group were based. It was inconceivable that an organisation such as the I.L.O., with its universal outlook and its function of drawing up international labour Conventions, could contemplate leaving such large masses of mankind outside the scope of its owne social legislation and in fact of international ArcËNI law. He believed that it was entirely possible to develop the constitutional arrangements of the ILO in such a way as to adapt them to present world.
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