TNAG-1520-FCO40-2081-Employment-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 84

35

MINUTES OF THE FOURTH SITTING

of the Governing Body

(Wednesday, 10 March 1954–4.45 p.m.)

The Governing Body was composed as follows: "Chairman: Mr. Malik.

Mr. AGO, Mr. Aftab ALI, Mr. BERGENSTRÖM, Mr. BROWN, Mr. CALDERÓN PUIG, Mr. CALVO,

Mr. CAMPANELLA, Mr. CHEYBANI, Mr. DELANEY, Mr. FERNANDES, Mr. GARCÍA OLDINI, Mr. GEMMILL, Mr. JOUHAUX, Mr. MALIK, Mr. MONK, Mr. MÖRI, Sir Guildhaume MYRDDIN-EVANS, Mr. PEQUENO, Mr. RAMADIER, Mr. DE REGO MONTEIRO, Mr. RINNE, Mr. ROBERTS, Mr. SEN, Mr. C. E. SHAW, Sir Richard SNEDDEN, Mr. SÖLVÉN, Mr. TUAN, Mr. UZCÁTEGUI, Mr. WALINE, Mr. WALLIN, Mr. YLLANES RAMOS, Mr. ZEMPEL.

SIXTH ITEM ON THE AGENDA

The I.L.O. and Non-Metropolitan Territories: Mr. Roberts said that the document submitted to the Governing Body on this item contained a full statement of the case put on behalf of the Workers at the last session, together with the observations made on the subject. The Governing Body would now have to take a decision on the points raised by the Workers' group. He drew attention, however, to the fact that a new document had been circulated which, although it was described as a proposal sub- mitted by the Workers' group, had in fact been prepared after full consultation with the repre- sentatives of some metropolitan governments and with certain employers' representatives. Those pro- posals did not represent everything that the workers would have desired, but they had been put forward in good faith in the belief that they constituted the utmost that could be obtained from the governments concerned. The Workers would, in particular, have preferred the adoption of a more imperative form of words in paragraph (3) by substituting the word "must" for the word "may" in the phrase which now read “such non-metropolitan territory may be invited

Nevertheless they understood that that form of words would mean committing the Governing Body in advance to accepting any proposals made to it and they had therefore accepted the wording which was now submitted, in the belief that the Governing Body itself would carry out its decisions in good faith. If the proposals were accepted by the Governing Body, it was assumed that the metro- politan governments would play their part by making proposals to the Governing Body for the invitation of observer delegations and that the Governing Body itself, having regard to the safeguards provided for metropolitan governments, would not stand in the way of any such proposals.

The Workers' group would also like the full text of the decisions taken at the 123rd Session to be reproduced in paragraph (1) of their proposals. It attached considerable importance to the question of the ratification and application of Conventions and to the further development of the association of

the non-metropolitan territories with the Inter- national Labour Organisation in other ways, and if the conclusions adopted at the last session were included in the proposed resolution the whole of the decisions taken by the Governing Body on the subject would be available in a single document

Sir Guildhaume Myrddin Evans said that although it was true that the new proposals, which represented an agreement reached as a result of discussions, did not give full satisfaction to the Workers' group, they did provide the substance of a new relationship between the non-metropolitan territories and the International Labour Organisation. The agreed proposals represented, on the part of the United Kingdom Government and the governments of the other metropolitan powers which had been consulted, a very sincere effort made in complete good faith to meet the views put forward at the last session by Mr. Roberts on behalf of the Workers' group. He had pointed out at that time the constitutional and other difficulties connected with the specific proposals originally presented by the Workers. Nevertheless the metropolitan powers did not lag behind any other member of the Governing Body in wishing to see as close am association as possible between the non-metropolitan territories and the I.L.O., and the new proposals now submitted to the Governing Body represented a sincere attempt to further that association while taking account of the real practical and constitutional difficulties which lay in the way of a more formal relationship.

With regard to the question of taking fuller advantage of the provisions of Article 33 of the Constitution, he stressed that the United Kingdom Government had already taken steps to provide that every section of the United Kingdom's delega- tion to the next session off the Conference should have attached to it additi omal advisers from non- As he Bad pointed out metropolitan territories. previously, the governmentt dement in the United Kingdom delegation had four mismong yours past included a representative from a mon-metropolitan territory as well as a representative of the Colonial Office, and the workers' delegate and the employers" delegate from the United Kingdom had also been accompanied more or less continuously by a repre

the interests of non-metropolitan sentative of territories.

the

Furthermore, the United Kingdom, like other metropolitan powers, had on many occasions arranged for the participation of certain non-metropolitan territories as full members of regional conferences, and intended to continue that practice, as provided in paragraph (2) of the new proposals.

He agreed with Mr. Roberts that the proposed text would be improved by the incorporation of the full text of the decisions taken at the 123rd Session of the Governing Body. With regard to the drafting change that the Workers' group would have desired in paragraph (3), he emphasised that the metro- politan governments themselves would not have any