A. —SG.

requests the governing body to instruct the International Labour Office to study, in consultation with the Committee of Experts on Native Labour, those special problems that may appear suitable for international regulation, and in particular the problems of wages (methods and periodicity of payment, advances, deferred pay, remittances to dependants, truck system, legal protection), housing (compounds, accommodation for families, provision of gardens for cultivation of foodstuffs), rations, and the protection of the health of the workers, with a view to the placing of an item dealing with these problems on the Agenda of a future session of the Conference. 3. Rights of Women Workers. Whereas, in view of the social and political changes of recent years, and the fact that women workers have sufisred from special forms of exploitation and discrimination in the past, there is need to re-examine their general positionand Whereas it is for the best interests of society that, in addition to full political and civil rights and full opportunity for education, women should have full opportunity to work and should receive remuneration without discrimination because of sex, and be protected by legislative safeguards against physically harmful conditions of employment and economic exploitation, including the safeguarding of motherhood and Whereas it is necessary that women as well as men should be guaranteed freedom of association by Governments and should be protected by social and labour legislation which world experience has shown to be effsctive in abolishing special exploitation of women workers : Therefore be it Resolved that the Twenty-third Session of the International Labour Conference, while recognizing that some of these principles lie within the competence of other international bodies, believes them to be of the greatest importance to workers in general and especially to women workers ; and therefore requests the governing body to draw them to the attention of all Governments, with a view to their establishment in law and in custom by legislative and administrative action, 4. Application of Labour Laws in Foreign Settlements in China. Whereas the International Labour Conference at its First Session in 1919 dealt with the difficulties with which China was faced owing to the existence within its territory of industrial undertakings enjoying extra-territorialitv ; Whereas even then the Commission on Special Countries reached the unanimous conclusion that a satisfactory solution ought to be found, in the interests both of the Chinese Government and of the workers, who are unquestionably the persons most closely concerned : Whereas in its report that Commission made the following suggestions— In view of the special difficulties which the Chinese Government may experience from the existence, within the area of China, of foreign settlements and leased territories, the commission suggests that the Conference should make the necessary representations to the Governments concerned (that is, to those Governments which at present exercise jurisdiction in these settlements and territories under treaties and engagements with China) to enforce in their territories within China the same restrictions as the Chinese Government has accepted ; or, in the alternative, to decree that labour legislation adopted by the Government of China shall be enforced by that Government within these foreign settlements and territories where extra-territorial, jurisdiction exists at present. Whereas the report was adopted by the Conference ; Whereas since that time the International Labour Office has never ceased to interest itself in the question in an attempt to reach a satisfactory solution : Whereas unfortunately its efforts have proved fruitless ; Whereas actually the position has to some extent grown worse, as was shown by the declarations and statements made by the Chinese delegates at the Technical Tripartite Conference on the textile industry, held at Washington from the 2nd to the 17th April, 1937 ; Whereas it is desirable that the International Labour Organization should continue its efforts with a view to finding a remedy for a state of affairs which was denounced in 1919 by the First Session of the International Labour Conference ; Whereas it is essential and indispensable that a State should possess complete administrative integrity as regards labour questions, in order to enable it to fulfil its obligations as a member of the International Labour Organization ; Whereas it is impossible for a State to apply its labour legislation satisfactorily within its territory if the industrial and commercial undertakings in the country which are managed by certain foreigners are not subject to the application of such legislation by the State, whilst other industrial and commerical undertakings are subject thereto ; Whereas the industrial and commercial undertakings in the country managed by certain foreigners, who are not subject either as regards themselves or their undertakings to the application of labour legislation, nevertheless employ large numbers of the nationals of the country in question, whom they thus deprive of the legitimate protection of the national legislation applied by their own Government • The Conference, considering that the International Labour Office should renew its efforts to bring about a settlement which would ensure that working-conditions should be regulated on similar lines

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