WORKING HOURS. (Hansard, 10 November 1932)

§ 9. Mr. MANDER
asked the Minister of Labour the attitude taken up by the British Government's representative at the meeting of the International Labour Office at Madrid recently on the subject of the 40-hour week?

§ Sir H. BETTERTON
The representative of His Majesty's Government at the Madrid meeting announced that his Government had decided to participate in the Preparatory Technical Conference which the International Labour Organisation has arranged to hold in Geneva in January next to consider proposals regarding the reduction of hours of work, and he made suggestions designed to secure a thorough investigation of all aspects of the problem by that conference. In accordance with his instructions he proposed that pending the report of the Preparatory Technical Conference no decision should be taken with regard to placing the question of hours of work on the agenda of the International Labour Conference to be held in June, 1933; but by a majority vote it was decided to place the question on the agenda forthwith.

§ Mr. MANDER
In view of the fact that it has been placed on the agenda, do I understand that the Government are prepared to consider and discuss the proposal sympathetically?

§ Mr. HANNON
Would it not be better to leave this question until there has been some substantial manifestation of approval?

§ Sir H. BETTERTON
As the matter is now on the agenda for the conference it will be necessary to consider the matter.

§ Mr. T. WILLIAMS
Will the Government not only take a part in the discussion, but also endeavour to secure universal agreement on this matter, which is the only way of dealing with the large volume of unemployment?

§ Sir H. BETTERTON
The difficulty in this matter is that it has been placed on the agenda without any previous examination at all, and there is, therefore, very little prospect of anything useful arising out of the discussion.

§ Mr. WILLIAMS
Is the right hon. Gentleman not aware that we had the Washington Convention in 1919, and that so far this Government and other Governments have failed to ratify it?