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lii presenting his report the Director, who was also Secretary-General of the Conference, said: — We cannot hope to secure the objects of economic security and a rising standard of living in a mutilated world —and by a mutilated world I mean a world in which an exhausted Europe cannot play her full part and make her full contribution. We cannot hope to see ai prosperous world if a battered and dismasted Europe is_ allowed to drift on to the rocks of economic disaster. We should, I think, bear in our minds the truth which we acclaimed at Philadelphia, that poverty anywhere is a menace to prosperity everywhere. Supplies of the Director-General's report should be available in New Zealand now, and I strongly recommend to those interested to peruse the report for themselves. It is, of •course, too long to be included in a report of this nature. Dealing with employment organization in the future the report says:—Only a year or so ago, the tendency in most parts of the world was to plan employment for the future, if at all, in bits and pieces-. To-day there is a vast difference. Perhaps for the first time in the history of mankind, comprehensive and co-ordinated national policies are taking shape in countries in widely separated parts of the world. The report then proceeds to discuss the British white-paper on " Employment Policy," the Canadian policy on " Employment and Income," the Australian white-paper on " Employment Policy," and the provisions in New Zealand for the Organization of National Development and the development in India of a Department on similar lines. The Director drew attention " that policies in this field will affect the lives of more than 130,000,000 returning service men and women." It also indicated the terrific problem which has arisen in the liberated countries through shortage of transport, fuel, power, and scarcity of materials and supplies of all kinds. In France at the end of February, 1945, 350,000 were unemployed, 1,500,000 on short time, and men who had been imprisoned or deported' by the enemy were returning home at the rate of 1,500 a day. Industrial Relations The report drew attention to the change brought about in industrial relationship due to the necessities of war, and said: — The system of wartime collaboration . . . will doubtless change its nature when conditions return to normal. It is unlikely, however, to disappear, because the difficult problems of reconversion from war economy to peace economy and the introduction of vast schemes of essential reform will call for continued close collaboration between Governments and the organized forces of production and labour. Associations of Workers The report pointed out that after the liberation — The firsit desire of the European Governments was, naturally, to restore the fundamental trade-union freedoms, to reconstruct the employers' and workers' organizations, and to give these organizations a share in the preliminary reconstruction measures. After reviewing the policy of various European Governments in this direction, the report quoted from the President of the Provisional Government of France, who, in a speech to the Consultative Assembly, said: — The French Government insists that the workers should play a part in the management of a national economy not only with their armies, but also with their intellects, and their enthusiasms. The report proceeds:— The pattern of this vast plan for co-operation between the Government and the employers' and workers' organizations) will not become clear until material conditions make the task of essential reconstruction a practical possibility. Already, however, the Government (of Prance) has taken certain striking measures to assist trade-unions in the _ control of the economic system, the management of nationalized industries, and the supervision of undertakings.

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