Tokio, July 28.
Considerable agitation is going on among factory workers over the way in which their delegates to the fourth Labour Conference at Geneva this autumn are to be chosen. According to statements issued by the Foreign Office, one delegate is to be chosen from among the workers, another is to represent the capitalists, and two the Govern. ment. With regard to the Government delegates, Mr. Minoichiro Adachi, Minister to Belgium, and Mr. Hitoshi Doke, chief of the Agriculture Bureau in the Department of Agriculture and Commerce, have been chosen. No selection has yet been made as regards the other delegates.
According to the official programme published, all Government and private factories employing 300 or more workers are entitled to nominate candidates in proportion to the number of workers employed, and from among them the delegate will be elected. The workers complain that in making the selection of the delegate to the first Labour Conference candidates were nominated from all factories employing 200 or more workers, while in the present instance the level has been raised to 300. They allege that in the first and succeeding elections the authorities brought pressure to bear upon the workers so that a man satisfactory to the Government might be chosen. Lhey now insist this time on being allowed to elect a man genuinely representing their interests.
There is another section of workers who consider the Labour Conference as a sham, intended to further the interests of capitalists, and they refuse to take any part the election of a delegate.
The Labour Treaty adopted at the first Labour Conference was referred to the Privy Council by the Government, but despite repeated meetings held by the Council to discuss it, it has not yet been passed.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.