A.—sc.

Short time in occupations to which the forty-hour week had been applied had almost disappeared, and staffs employed in industry and commerce had increased. The reduction in unemployment did not represent the full effect of the Act, because it had been found that in May, 1937, there were 250,000 more people in employment than in May, 1936. The British Government's view, as expressed in relation to the textile industry, is that a fortyhour week in that industry would lead to wage-reductions and unemployment. ELECTIONS TO THE GOVERNING BODY. It is prescribed by Article 7 of the Constitution and Standing Orders of the International Labour Organization that the Office shall be under the control of a Governing Body consisting of thirty-two persons, sixteen of whom represent Governments, and eight each represent workers and employers. The elections to the Governing Body take place every three years. The procedure is for preliminary elections to take place separately in the Government, the Workers', and the Employers' groups. From these primary elections are forwarded to the Conference sufficient nominations to fill the vacancies in each group. Of the sixteen persons representing Governments, eight must be appointed by the members of chief industrial importance —namely, Canada, Prance, Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, Union Soviet Socialist Republics, and the United States of America. Of the other eight members one must be appointed by members selected for that purpose by the Government delegates to the Conference excluding the delegates of the eight members mentioned above. In the Governing Body whose mandate expires in October, 1937, the eight seats for which elections were held are occupied by —Argentine Republic, Brazil, China, Czecho-slovakia, Finland, Mexico, Poland, and Spain. In accordance with the constitution of the International Labour Organization, six of the sixteen members represented on the Governing Body must be non-European States. As there are already four non-European States among the eight members of chief industrial importance, it was necessary that at least two of the eight members to be elected should be non-European States. The persons representing the employers and the persons representing the workers must be elected respectively by the employers' delegates and the workers' delegates to the Conference. Two employers' representatives and two workers' representatives must belong to non-European States. When electing the regular members of the Governing Body, the employers' and workers' delegates are also required to elect respectively eight deputy members. The principal New Zealand Government delegate (Hon. H. T. Armstrong) made the following reference to the Governing Body during his address to the Conference : — " I should like particularly to make some reference to the Constitution of the Governing Body, and to express the hope that some way may be found of giving such countries as New Zealand an opportunity to take part in its work. In this connection I should like to suggest that consideration should be given to some system of rotation or alternation by which the greater number of the members of the Organization could be given an opportunity to occupy seats on the Governing Body." The following countries were elected on the recommendation of the Government group : — Brazil. Mexico. Spain. Chile. Norway. Yugoslavia. China. Poland. The following persons were elected on the nomination of the employers' group :— Mr. Curcin (Yugoslavia). Mr. Erulkar (India). Mr. Forbes Watson (British Empire). Mr. Harriman (United States of America). Mr. Gemmill (Union of South Africa). Mr. Lambert Ribot (France). Mr. Oersted (Denmark). Mr. Olivetti (Italy). The deputy members for the group were as follows : — Mr. Zen (Japan). Mr. Tzaut (Switzerland). Mr. Gerard (Belgium). Mr. Vanek (Czecho-slovakia). Mr. Molenaar (Netherlands). Mr. Szydlowski (Poland). Mr. Junoy Rabat (Spain). Mr. Camuzzi (Austria). Mr. Lamuraglia (Argentine Republic). Mr. Ling (China). The persons elected on the recommendation of the workers' group were : — Mr. Andersson (Sweden). Mr. Caballero (Spain). Mr. Hallsworth (British Empire). Mr. Joshi (India). Mr. Jouhaux (France). Mr. Mertens (Belgium). Mr. Watt (United States of America). Mr. Yonekubo (Japan).

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