COAL AND TARIFFS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 September 1929, Page 5

COAL AND TARIFFS

A BRITISH MOVE,

(British Official Wireless.)

RUGBY, September 12,

At a meeting of the Second Committee of the League of Nations Assembly, which is dealing with economic questions, two important resolutions relating to tariffs and coal were submitted in the name of the British delegation.

The first of these resolutions recommended that a conference of members off the League and of non-member Coates be held with a view to securing, by agreement, a general reduction of such protective tariffs as are excessive, and that the countries intending to participate should enter into an agreement not to increase their protective tariffs above the present level, or to impose new protective duties, before the end of 1931, and that they agree to examine in the meantime their protective tariffs and reduce them.

The resolution regarding the coal problem was to the effect that the International Labour Organisation should pursue its investigations into the conditions, hours, and wages in the coal industry without delay and that the League Council should request the governing body of the International Labour Conference of 1930 of questions relating to this problem with the object of agreeing upon an International Council.

The resolution further suggested that, in order to facilitate the conclusion off an international agreement the governing body of the International Labour Office should consider the advisability of convening, at the earliest date,, a Preparatory Technical. Conference, consisting of representatives, of the Governments, employers, . anr workers ,of the principal coal-producing countries of Europe, in order to advise as to what questions relating to the conditions of employment in the cqal mines might be included in the agenda of the International Labour Conference off 1930.