HC Deb 10 July 1958 vol 591 cc547-8
1. Mr. Prentice

asked the Secretary of State for the Colonies whether he will make a statement of the position in Colonial and Trust Territories in relation to the International Labour Organisation Convention on the abolition of forced labour.

The Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies (Mr. John Profumo)

I assume that the hon. Member has in mind the Convention (No. 105) adopted at the International Labour Conference last year. That Convention has already been applied in 28 of the overseas territories for which the United Kingdom is responsible. Consultations with the remaining territories are still proceeding.

Mr. Prentice

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that reply. Can he give the House any indication how long it will take to complete the process in the remaining territories, and can he give an assurance that in the twenty-eight territories to which he refers none of the forms of forced or compulsory labour as defined in the Article I in the Convention now apply?

Mr. Profumo

I can give the latter undertaking which the hon. Gentleman asks for. I am afraid that I cannot say how long it will take; but good progress has been made during the six months since the United Kingdom ratification. It may give the hon. Gentleman some sort of perspective when I say that only eleven out of eighty members of the I.L.O. have so far recognised the Convention.

Mr. Creech Jones

Can the hon. Gentleman say how it happened that there has been such a long delay in the ratification of this Convention? The original Convention was made in the years before the war, and there was a directive from the Secretary of State ten years ago. What stands in the way? What are the impediments to the full implementation of the Convention?

Mr. Profumo

As the right hon. Gentleman knows, there are two separate Conventions. The first, to which I think he refers, and which was in 1930, has been ratified and is now applied in all United Kingdom overseas territories. This is a different Convention with which as much progress is being made as is physically possible.