HE mail brings from Geneva details of three important decisions taken by the Into ternational Labour. Conference in June, 1937. The first is a long resolution concerning the application to factories owned by extra-territorial nationals of the same standards of employment as are applicable to Chinese factories under the national. factory law,. and their' extension to foreign administered areas, in particular the International Settlement.
Realising the failure to solve the problem thus existing, the resolution in strong terms seeks termination of a situation in which both foreign factories and Chinese factories escape adequate regula: tion because of the alleged possi ibility of inequitable application. Finally the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization is called upon to seek anew a solution to the problem, either by conference between the parti ies, or by a Convention to which member-states of the I. L. ©. would be called upon to adhere.
The second resolution has already been reported by cable, and again proposes to use the instrument of international convention to regulate the hours of work in the textile industry in those countries which for obvious reas sons cannot adhere to the terms of the 40 hours week convention which the Conference passed applying to the textile trades.
The third resolution intimates that a conference Asia and devoted specially to Asiati problems is likely to materialise when the preparatory work which has"élready been in operation for some time has developed further.
'A special Committee is likely soon to be appointed to concern itself with Asiatic Labour issues.
The following are the resolutions, submitted by various delegates, trans mitted by the Resolutions Committee and. adopted by the International Labour Conference, Pre lon of Workers Whereas the International Labour Conference at its First Session in yO19 dealt with the diticulties with which China was faced owing to the existence within its territory of Industrial undertakings enjoying ex-
The Conference, considering that the International Labour Office should renew its efforts to bring about a settlement which would ensure that working conditions should be regulate similar lines in. the International Settlement and in the rest of China, in order that factories on Chinese territory and within the Settlement should not derive an une {fair competitive advantage by availing themselves of the absence of labour 'Whereas even then the Commission fon Special Countries reached the unanimous conclusion that a satisfac~ tory solution ought to be found, in the interests both of the Chinese Government and of the workers, wi are unquestionably the persons' mos closely: concerned; Whereas in its report that Commis sion made the following suggestion "In view of the special difficulties which the Chinese Government may experience from the existence, within the area of China, of foreign settle ments and leased territories, the commission suggests that the Conference should make the necessary representa tions to the Governments concerned 4s, to those Governments which at ipregent exercise jurisdiction in those settlements and territories under treaties and engagements with Chin: to enforce in their territories within, China the same restrictions as the Government has accepted; srnative, to decree that isolation "adopted by the Government of China shall be en= foreed by that Government within those foreign settlements and territories where extraterritorial Jurisdiction exists of present."
Whereas the report was adopted by national Labour OMce has never ceased to interest itself in the ques tion in an attempt to reach a satis factory solution; 8 unfortunately its efforts have proved fruitless:
Whereas actually the position has to some extent grown worse, as was shown by the declarations and statements made by the Chinese Delegates at the Technical Tripartite Confer~ ence on the textile industry, held at Washington from 2 to 17 April 1037; Whereas it is desirable that the International Labour Organization, should continue its efforts with a view to finding a remedy for a state of affairs which was denounced in 1919 by the First Session of the International Labour Conference;
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.