§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ LORD PARMOORMy Lords, this s what I may call another Protocol Bill. It deals with three Conventions, and is perhaps a little more complicated than the last Bill, but if your Lordships have the Rill in your hands you will see that it refers to what passed at general conferences of the International Labour Organisation of the League of Nations in 927 1920 and 1921. There are three so-called draft Conventions. One of them deals with this point, that if a ship is lost at sea the seaman, provided he can get no other employment, is to receive payment for a period not exceeding, in any case, two months. The reason for that period being taken is that he is expected to arrive home again in about that time. Secondly, there is a provision with regard to the minimum age for the admission of young persons to employment as trimmers and stokers, and, having regard to the conditions of their work, that age is placed at eighteen years. Lastly, it is provided that there shall be a medical examination of young persons—that is, those under the age of eighteen years—the sole object being that they shall be fit for the duties which they will have to perform. This Bill, like the last, has been very fully discussed by a large number of conferences and conventions, and I ask your Lordships to give it a Second Reading.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a.—(Lord Parmoor.)
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.