CONFIDENTIAL
C.P. (49) 182
24th August, 1949
Page 497 236
Printed for the Cabinet. August 1949
Copy No. 31
CABINET
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE-GENEVA, JUNE-JULY 1949
MEMORANDUM BY THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND NATIONAL SERVICE
The 32nd Session of the International Labour Conference was held at Geneva from 8th June to 2nd July, inclusive. The Governing Body met on 3rd and 4th June, but as it did not complete its work on these dates a number of meetings had to be held during the Conference.
The Minister of Labour's Address to the Conference
2 Owing to the industrial troubles at home I was, unfortunately, able to spend only two days at this year's Conference. The Parliamentary Secretary also attended for a short time. While I was there I addressed the Conference just before the Director-General replied to the discussion on his report. My speech, which was very well received, is appended as an Annex to this memorandum.
President and Vice-Presidents
3. It was, I know, a source of great satisfaction to my colleagues that, on the proposal of the Brazilian Government, Sir Guildhaume Myrddin-Evans, Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Labour and National Service, was unanimously elected President of the Conference. This is the first time since 1926 that the Conference has had a President from the United Kingdom and the first time in the history of the I.L.O. that a serving civil servant of any country has been elected President. It is, I feel, not only a recognition of the firm support which this country has consistently given to the I.L.O. since its foundation, but is also an outstanding tribute, of which we can be justly proud, to the British Civil Service.
4. The Vice-Presidents of the Conference were M. Pierre Dupong, Prime Minister and Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Luxembourg (Government), M. Pierre Waline, France (Employer) and M. Ibanez Aguila, Chile (Worker). The Chairmanships of the various committees were distributed broadly on a geographical basis.
General
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5. Delegations from 50 States Members attended the Conference. addition there was a tripartite observer delegation from Japan, who were accompanied by a representative of the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers. A proposal put by the British Government to the Governing Body that a tripartite delegation from Germany should also be invited to attend the Conference in the rôle of observers, was supported by the Governments of the United States, France and other countries and unanimously by the employers' and workers' groups. Some Western European countries, however, particularly Belgium, whose Prime Minister, M. Spaak, was at that time being attacked both from the Right and from the Left as being too friendly top Germany regarded the proposal as premature and it was not pursued. This matter is referred to
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later in Pash£66 Representatives were presegerStof hated Nations and the Specialised Agencies. In addition a number of non-governmental organisations, including the World Federation of Trade Unions, sent representatives.
6. In the three and a half weeks available the Conference accomplished a great volume of exceedingly useful work in the field of international labour legislation. The spirit of co-operation which I noted in connection with last year's Conference was again in evidence and there was a general desire to reach agreement on instruments which would be regarded as widely acceptable and which were not merely the embodiment of distant ideals. United Kingdom
Government delegates to International Labour Conferences have for many years consistently pressed the view that International Labour Conventions, and to a substantial extent Recommendations as well, should be regarded not merely as declarations of ideals but as practicable instruments capable of reasonably rapid and widespread implementation. This line has been supported both by the United Kingdom employers' and by the United Kingdom workers' delegates, and there are signs that our views are making a substantial and increasing impression upon other delegates, with the result that, as noted in my report on last year's Session, the instruments adopted by the International Labour Conference in recent years are tending to be more realistic than formerly. A notable example of the greater realism now being displayed by the Conference is the way in which they approached this year the question of the revision of the Convention on Fee- Charging Employment Agencies. This Convention, which was passed in 1933, provided for the abolition of Fee-Charging Employment Agencies. In the course of sixteen years it has attracted ratification from only six States. When revising it this year, accordingly, the Conference reconstructed it and included provision for the alternative policies of abolition or regulation of such agencies-either of which could be adopted by a ratifying State. It was further provided that a ratifying State which chose to ratify on the basis of the regulation of agencies might subsequently adopt abolition, but that a State which once adopted abolition might not, within the terms of the Convention, go back and adopt regulation. My colleagues will recall that on 14th January (L.P. (49) 1st Meeting, Minute 2) the Lord President's Committee agreed that the United Kingdom Government should support the policy of regulation. Despite the opposition of the French and Belgian Governments the Convention was adopted by the Conference in its revised form by an overwhelming majority and with the strong support of the workers' group.
7. The United Kingdom Delegation-Government, Employers and Workers played its usual leading part in the Conference and the results are, except for one or two details, acceptable and in accordance with the policy of His Majesty's Government. The United Kingdom Government Delegation again received the most wholehearted co-operation from the British employers' and workers' representatives, led as last year by Sir John Forbes Watson and Mr. Alfred Roberts respectively, although naturally these representatives did not always vote the same way as the Government delegates. I wish again to express my gratitude to those of my colleagues whose officers formed part of the Government Delegation. The high quality of this representation was largely responsible for the generally favourable result (from the British point of view) of the proceedings and envious tributes to our team were to be heard from all quarters. Foreign representation was well up to standard without, however, any particularly outstanding personality disclosing himself in either of the three groups.
8. The Conference on the whole passed off quietly. The exchanges in Plenary Session were not, however, without a certain acerbity. Thus, the repre- sentatives of the "Iron Curtain
Iron Curtain" countries (Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Hungary) made a series of what were obviously planned and concerted attacks on the policies of some countries, the conditions in other countries, the alleged under-representation of workers in the composition of national delega- tions to the International Labour Conference, and other matters. These attacks, while pungent in form, lacked a certain conviction and reality in expression. Nevertheless, by acting as a team" and by cleverly spreading their speakers over the ag48th 2 weeks' discussion on the Bigetel's report, the representatives of the "Iron Curtain"" countries were able both to launch attacks
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from different quarters and on different countries and also to reply to counter attacks or replies by other delegates which had been evoked by earlier attacks from other members of the Iron Curtain team. In this way they were collectively enabled to overcome the disability from which the ordinary delegate suffers by not being able to speak more than once. A striking example of this occurred when the United States employers' delegate, ill-advisedly as most dele- gates thought, stated in answer to earlier speeches from some of the "Iron Curtain representatives
"-to our friends across the iron curtain-we must, and I am sure we will, be prepared on a moment's notice to defend, with arms if necessary, the freedom and the liberties of the Old World that we and our forefathers have loved and fought for."
As might have been expected, this brought forth from M. Levcik, one of the Czechoslovak Government delegates, a devastating reply which was all the more effective for being very restrained.
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9. Generally there was rather more of a tendency than has previously been the case to use the platform of the Conference for the purpose of making political declarations. Thus, there were some controversial exchanges between the Dutch workers' delegate and one of the Dutch Government delegates about the action of the Roman Catholic Church in prohibiting Catholics from belonging to the general Dutch trade union movement (the Netherlands Federation of Trade Unions); the Government delegate from the Philippines attacked what he called the "White Australia" policy; the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Irish Republic made a reference to the partition question; and the Argentine Government delegate protested once more against the description of the Falkland Islands as a British possession. There was no sting, however, in this last incident and the Argentine delegate in friendly fashion informed us in advance that he was going to do this so that we might not be taken unawares and could make our answering protest-which we duly did with firmness and brevity. This tendency to bring controversial issues to the platform of the Inter- national Labour Conference, which happily has hitherto been reasonably free from such incidents, is a development which can only be deplored. I referred to it with deep concern in my address, and at the same time I pointed out in reply to the Minister of Industry and Commerce of the Irish Republic that the boundary between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic exists because of the clear desire for it expressed at successive Parliamentary elections by the people of Northern Ireland.
10.
Co-operation with other Commonwealth Representatives
11. We maintained our usual close contact with the other Commonwealth delegates and advisers, including the sole delegate from Ceylon, which was repre- sented for the first time since obtaining membership last year. They were all most anxious to co-operate and our relations were of the happiest, although the Australian delegation sometimes took an awkward line-a not unusual occurrence in international meetings.
The Director-General
12.
This was the first Conference since Mr. Morse took office as Director- General last September and he can be well satisfied both with the results achieved and with his own standing in the Organisation. He confirmed earlier impressions as to his sincerity and ability. He has been himself receptive to new ideas and at the same time realistic in his approach to a consideration of their practicability. He should prove a very successful executive head of the Organisation.
The Agenda of the Annual Conference
13. In common with other organisations, the I.L.O. is faced with an accumulation of urgent questions which interested parties or States press upon the attention of the Conference. The result is that the agenda, although still modest when compared with those of some other international organisations, is tending to make demands upon Governments, employers and workers in the way of representation which all parties are finding it increasingly difficult to meet.