HC Deb 11 March 1947 vol 434 cc169-71W
116 Mr. K. Lindsay

asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he will issue a White Paper, detailing the proposals for international measures to secure full employment, which the Minister of State has recently put before the Economic and Social Council.

Mr. McNeil

I give below the text of the resolution on full employment put before the Economic and Social Council by the United Kingdom Delegation. I am also considering whether it would be for the convenience of the House on the conclusion of the Council's present session to issue a Government publication giving an account of the Council's proceedings and including the texts of the important resolutions adopted.

Following is the Resolution

  1. (A) The promotion of full employment is one of the principal objectives of the United Nations in the sphere of international economic and social co-operation.
  2. (B) The Economic and Employment Commission is charged by its terms of reference with the responsibility of advising the Economic and Social Council regarding the promotion of full employment by the co-ordination of national full employment policies and by international action.
  3. (C) In addition to the Economic and Social Council a number of inter-governmental agencies are closely concerned with international action to promote full employment and such action can only be successfully undertaken by the Council in co-operation with these agencies.
  4. (D) The International Labour Conference at its twenty-seventh session at Paris in November, 1945, passed a resolution concerning the maintenance of full employment during the period of industrial rehabilitation and reconversion which in addition to advocating certain types of domestic policies made a number of suggestions for international action to promote employment and expressed the hope that the United Nations through its appropriate organs would define and put into effect as quickly as possible, appropriate measures for furthering international co-ordination of employment policies during the reconversion period and that for this purpose the fullest use would be made of the International Labour Organisation and the other inter-governmental organisations concerned.
  5. (E) The Economic and Social Council at its first session in February, 1946, passed a resolution in which it decided to call an international conference on trade and employment constituted a preparatory committee to elaborate an annotated draft agenda for this conference and suggested as one of the topics to be included in this agenda international agreement relating to the achievement and maintenance of high and stable levels of employment and economic activity.
  6. (F) This preparatory committee at its first session in London introduced into the draft charter which it had prepared for the proposed international trade organisation, a number of articles dealing with employment including a provision that Members of that organisation would agree to participate in arrangements undertaken or sponsored by the Economic and Social Council (including arrangements with the appropriate inter-governmental organisations) for consultation with a view to concerted action on the part of governments and intergovernmental organisations in the field of employment policies.
  7. (G) The Preparatory Committee of the Trade and Employment Conference at the same session prepared for the consideration of the conference on trade and employment, a draft resolution in which the conference would ask the Economic and Social Council to undertake at an early date in consultation with the appropriate inter-governmental organisations special studies of the form which international action 171 in relation to employment might take and would suggest a number of specific forms of international action which should be considered in this connection.
  8. (H). The Economic and Employment Commission at its first session instructed its sub-commission on employment and economic stability taking into account the responsibilities of the various international agencies to report to the commission at its early convenience on the preliminary views of the sub-commission concerning the kinds of international action which are likely to be feasible and of assistance in maintaining economic stability and full employments.
  9. (I). It is important that the various international bodies concerned should make an early start in considering appropriate forms of international action of the maintenance of employments: The Economic and Social Council therefore 'invites the Economic and Employment Commission' taking full account of any views put forward by the international labour organisation 'the International Monetary Fund' the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development: the Food and Agricultural Organisation: the Interim Co-ordinating Committee for International Commodity Arrangements and the Preparatory Committee of the Trade and Employment Conference (particularly the draft resolution on international action relating to employment appearing in the report of the first session of this committee) to consider and report to the Council regarding the most appropriate forms of international action to maintain high and stable levels of world employment.