Furthermore, there was no surer way of ensuring dissension among the democratic States Members of the Organisation than by pursuing a proposal of
this kind.
All the members of the Governing Body had at heart the objective of associating non-metropolitan territories more closely with the work of the Inter- national Labour Organisation; the difference arose only on the question of method. In the view of the United Kingdom Government the right method was a development of the present constitutional and etical provisions and procedures, whereas in the view of the Workers' group it was to associate non-metropolitan territories in some form of mem- bership of the Organisation, either associate member- ship or full membership according to the territory. He suggested, however, that the proposal of the Workers group was based not merely upon a mis- conception but upon an ignorance of what was already being done and what could be done under the present constitutional arrangements. Nothing was further from the truth than to say that the metropolitan territories were ignoring their re- sponsibilities in the field of the I.L.O. in regard to their non-metropolitan territories. So far as the United Kingdom Government was concerned, it could claim that its record of application of Conven- tions and Recommendations to non-metropolitan territories, as it stood in the reports made annually to the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations, would bear comparison with that of any country, and was indeed far better than that of some completely sovereign States. In fact, a member of the Workers' group had stated in the Governing Body after a meeting of the Committee of Experts on Social Policy in Non-Metropolitan Territories that he had been surprised to find how far in advance of the sovereign States were conditions in many of the non-metropolitan territories. With regard to those Conventions and Recommendations which referred particularly to non-self-governing territories, the United Kingdom Government had ratified, in respect of its non-self-governing territories, every such Convention subject to a few modifications to meet special conditions in one or two particular territories.
The kind of association which already existed between the L.L.O. and non-metropolitan territories could be illustrated by many examples. In the case of the United Kingdom Government, for instance, colonial labour department officials had been included in the United Kingdom Government delegation to the International Labour Conference for a long period of years. At least two advisers on colonial matters were attached to the delegation, one drawn from the Colonial Office, which had a special re- sponsibility for the non-metropolitan territories, and the other or others from the non-metropolitan territories themselves. There was no reason why, within the bounds of available finance, this practice should not be developed and he could give an under- taking that the United Kingdom Government would be prepared to consider such development. It was also the practice and policy of the Employers' group of the United Kingdom delegation to the International Labour Conference to include a repre- sentative of colonial employers. Although the Workers' group had followed the same practice for a number of years, he understood that in recent years the group had felt that in view of the limited numbers of advisers allowed it had not been possible to include a representative of labour from the
50
colonial territories. Here again, ow, the United"! Kingdom Goverment would certainly de prepared to examine any proposals which the Workers' representatives in the United Kingdom might make with a view to providing for additional advišers representing colonial workers.
With regard to other I.L.O. meetings, at the recent session of the Committee on Work on. Plantations the United Kingdom Workers' delegation had been composed wholly of trade unionists from Malaya and the West Indies and three advisers from the West Indies had also been included in the Goven- ment delegation. At each session of the Asian Regional Conference there had been a full tripartite delegation of representatives from Hong Kong, Malaya and Singapore and, at the last two sessions, an additional adviser from another part of the colonial territories in Asia. He had been glad to hear the tribute paid by Mr. Roberts to the contri- bution which these representatives had made to the debates at the Asian Regional Conference at Tokyo. In addition, there were an increasing number of representatives from non-metropolitan territories on the Committee of Experts on Social Policy in Non- Metropolitan Territories, which at present included representatives from British colonial territories in the West Indies, West Africa and South-East Asia; and lastly, one of the members of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations was Mr. Grantley Adams, who was the equivalent of Prime Minister in Barbados. The examples he had cited showed that practically no recognition had been given to what had already been done, and what could still be done, in associating the non-metropolitan territories with the work of
The Gov the International Labour Organisation. erning Body should therefore give attention to what further action could be taken within the framework of the existing constitutional provisions and of the practices which had grown up in the past before beginning to consider the revolutionary proposals submitted by the Workers' gremp.
He appealed to the Workers' group and to the Governing Body as a whole not to put the metro- politan territories on the defensive or to force them to think in legalistic and formal terms about their constitutional rights and obligations and their constitutional relationships with their mon-metro- politan territories. There was plenty of scope in the existing circumstances for further improvement on what had already been done and he firmly believed that that was the right way to proceed rather than embarking on a revolutionary proposal of which the consequences for the LLO. could not be
foreseen.
Mr. Calderón Puig said that the Mexican Govern ment regarded this question as one of great import- ance and would have been prepared to support a proposal to adjourn it to the next session in order that it might be thoroughly discussed and satis- factorily settled. As the Governing Body had not accepted the proposal for adjournment of the debate, he wished to make a few general observations, with all due respect to the views expressed for and against the proposals of the Workers' group.
The general position of the Mexican Government in regard to colonial questions was well known and had been stated in the United Nations, in the other? specialised agencies and at the Conferences American States. Sir Guildhaumme Mydin-Evans had reminded members of the Governing Body that colonialism existed whether one liked it or disliked
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