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NON-SELF-GOVERNING TERRITORIES
questionnaire addressed to the Governments in accordance with Article 32 of the Standing Orders că the Conference.
Lastly, an appendix will give the Philadelphia and Paris Re- commendations regrouped in logical order. Such a rearrangement has, of course, no official character. Since, however, it was inevitable that the two separate discussions at Philadelphia and Paris and the two separate decisions reached meant that some questions are divided between the two Recommendations, a combined text may assist the Conference in its choice of the provisions suitable for Convention treatment.
It is believed that one conclusion will emerge from this Report as a whole. It is that, however extensive may be the Conventions which the Conference may adopt, the Philadelphia and Paris Recommendations are of more than preparatory importance. They are a code of minimum standards and long-term objectives forming a coherent whole of guiding principles and an agenda for action by the competent authorities and organisations of employers and workers of dependent territories. Their purpose and influence should not come to an end with the adoption and ratification of Conventions. Rather they will continue to describe the policy in the framework of which Convention obligations will fit.
The title of this Report requires an explanation. Article 35 of the Constitution of the International Labour Organisation speaks of "colonies, possessions and protectcrates which are not fully self-governing". The Philadelphia and Paris Recommendations use the phrase "dependent territories". This also describes the item before the coming session of the Conference and is currently used for all countries under the various forms of colonial rule. It has, however, on occasions been suggested that the phrase has, particularly in French, a derogatory implication and that the peoples concerned are regarded as inferior to the peoples of indepen- dent States. While this implication would not appear to be justified, nevertheless, in matters of natural race and community pride it is not sufficient to avoid offence. The sEghtest suspicion that any phrase may be misinterpreted so as to give offence must likewise be avoided.
A similar problem arose at the San Francisco Conference. The solution reached was to speak of “Non-Self-Governing Terri- tories" in the title of Chapter XI, and in Article 73 to use the phrase "territories whose peoples have zot yet attained a full measure of self-government". The evidence before the Office
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