BRITISH POLITICS

Evening Star, Issue 19803, 29 February 1928, Page 4

BRITISH POLITICS

THE HOUSE OF COMMONS

EIGHT HOURS’ CONVENTION DISCUSSED.

LONDON, February 27,

In th» House of Commons, in committee on the Civil Estimates, Mr T. Shaw moved a reduction as a protest against Britain’s non-ratilication of the Washington Eight Hours’ Convention, declaring that Britain's failure to honor her bond had torpedoed the convention.

Mr H. B. Betterton, in replying, said that the reason the Government had not ratified the convention, despite the fact that 95 per cent, of the people in Britain worked only forty-eight hours per week, was that existing industrial agreements affecting hundreds of thousands of Britisli workers would be imperilled by ratification of the convention as it was at present drafted. If the Laborites really wanted to secure the position of the workers throughout the world they would support Britain’s efforts to amend the convention, which was at present variously interpreted in different countries Sir Arthur Stcel-Maitland, in closing the debate, said there was never any obligation on the part of tho Government to ratify the convention, so that there could not bo any question of a breach of faith. It was clear that the Labor Party wished to ratify the (Washington Convention .as it stood. Mr Shaw, interrupting, indignantly denied this. Sir A. Stecl-Maitland: “Then I do not know where Mr Shaw stands. A forty-eight-hour week would bo illegal in many industries undei any domestic legislation founded on the Washington Convention.” If we pressed for a division he did not think there would be any fundamental difference between ourselves and France. The motion was defeated by 214 to PB, and the vote was agreed to.

THE SOLOMONS MASSACRE.

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY.

LONDON, February 27,

Mr Amery, in answer to a question, »id he had decided to appoint a special commissioner to inquire into the murin the Solomon Islands. The commissioner would leach the protectorate in May. Sir Austen Chamberlain, in reply to * question, said that the United States had not offered a multilateral treaty to Britain, as she did to France. Mr Walter Guinness _ (Minister of Agriculture) told a questioner that Argentina had forbidden the export to Britain of carcasses of cattle infected with foot-and-mouth disease, as well as those that had been in immediate contact with-the-former. Uruguay^and Brazil had adopted similar regulationsAsked whether the removal _ of the British forces from Cairo was being considered, Sir Austen Chamberlain said it would be impossible to make a statement on the subject till the end of the Anglo-Egyptian conversations. _ No Anglo-Egyptian treaty would bo ratified without consulting Parliament.