HC Deb 30 July 1925 vol 187 cc615-20
44. Colonel WOODCOCK

asked the Minister of Labour whether any effect has been given to the unanimous resolution of the Conference of the International Labour Organisation, Washington, 1919, that an advisory committee, on which the Governments, the employers, and the workers shall all be represented, shall be appointed without delay to keep in touch with the work of the Health Section of the International Labour Organisation?

Mr. BETTERTON

So far as I have been able to ascertain up to the present, the only committee appointed, as a result of the Washington resolution, to which my hon. and gallant Friend refers, is the Correspondence Committee on Industrial Hygiene. That committee, however, consists of experts, and not, as laid down by the Washington resolution, of representatives of Governments, employers, and workers.

Colonel WOODCOCK

Can the hon. Gentleman explain why it is that this definite instruction has not been carried out during the preceding six years? Does not that show that these unanimous resolutions passed by the organisation are simply pious hopes?

Mr. BETTERTON

I cannot answer the first part of my hon. and gallant Friend's supplementary question. With regard to the latter part, he must draw his own conclusions.

46. Colonel WOODCOCK

asked the Minister of Labour whether a comprehensive encyclopædia of industrial hygiene is being prepared by the International Labour Office; whether he can furnish the House with a list of the experts in industrial hygiene chosen as expert collaborators for such work, and the proportion of British experts in such list: whether these expert collaborators are nominated by the governing body or by the officials of the International Labour Office; and whether the Director of the International Labour Office claims the right to consult in the preparation of this encyclopædia such of the expert collaborators as he thinks fit, and without reference to the governing body?

Mr. BETTERTON

As the answer is necessarily long, I will, with my hon. and gallant Friend's permission, circulate it in the OFFICIAL REPORT.

Following is the answer:

The answer to the first and last parts of this question is in the affirmative. A list is given below of the experts who are understood to have been collaborating with the International Labour Office up to the present in the preparation of the encyclopædia. Of the 66 experts, four are British. As regards the third part of the question, some of the experts are members of the Correspondence Committee on Industrial Hygiene of the International Labour Office. The approval of the governing body is obtained before experts are added to this Committee. As far as I am aware, the remaining expert collaborators have been selected by the Director of the International Labour Office.

LIST of the EXPERTS who are collaborating with the International Labour Office in the preparation of the Encyclopædia of Hygiene, Pathology and Social Welfare.

(Members of the Correspondence Committee on Industrial Hygiene are indicated by an asterisk (*).)

Colonel WOODCOCK

Does not the hon. Gentleman think that books of this sort should be under the management of the governing body, and not of the officials?

Mr. BETTERTON

I think that perhaps my hon. and gallant Friend had better wait and see my answer. I am not prepared to accept his statement as accurate.