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Several members of the Committee drew attention to the difficulties of finding hard -currency in which to pay their contributions, and the Committee proposed that this question be further explored by the Office and a report submitted to the Governing Body. The Conference endorsed the Committee's recommendation and approved a Budget for 1950 of $5,983,526, an increase of 15 per cent, on the expenditure authorized for the previous year. The need for this increase was explained by the Director-General as being due to — (1) Constant rise in prices of goods and services used by the 1.L.0. (2) Normal annual increments on staff salary scales until appropriate maxima were reached and certain salary increases approved by the Governing Body. (3) Expansion of the 1.L.0.'s work in the field of man-power, migration, and technical training. (4) Increasing necessity to implement effectively the 1.L.0.'s work through regional conferences and industrial committees. New Zealand's contribution for 1950, after the adjustments mentioned above, is assessed at $53,166, representing 0-93 per cent, of the total, as compared with $43,084 for 1949. APPLICATION OF CONVENTIONS A supplementary report by the 1.L.0. Committee of Experts on the Application of ■Conventions concerning more effective measures for enforcing Conventions was placed before the Conference Committee dealing with this item of the Agenda. The report referred in the following words to the reasons which led to such measures being considered : While, of course, the problem of default under Article 22 presents itself in its most striking form in relation to certain Governments which year after year fail entirely to present any of the reports required of them, there are many other cases where default under Article 22 seriously impedes the work of international supervision which is based upon that Article. There are a large number of cases, for -example, where Governments supply some but not all of the reports due. There are many cases where some or all of the reports arrive long after the date by which they are requested and often too late to allow of their examination by the Committee. The reports submitted moreover, whether late or in time, exhibit extremely varying degrees of completeness and lucidity. Every year some countries submit very detailed reports, but, as the Committee has previously pointed out, in other cases the reports can be described only as wholly inadequate to serve the purpose of indicating even the extent of formal conformity between the terms of national legislation and the international Conventions, and as giving no indications whatever of the effectiveness of application in practice. One suggestion was to subject the defaulter to some penalty as that laid down in the Constitution for financial defaulters—viz., prohibition from exercising any voting powers in the Organization. The Committee of Experts felt that this step would be too drastic. It would also involve amendment to the Constitution. Another suggestion was to exclude such defaulters from representation on the Governing Body. The suggestion approved was the submission of information concerning default of Governments in respecting their obligations to the Government representatives entitled to vote at the time of the triennial election to the Governing Body. The Conference Committee endorsed the observations of the Committee of Experts that " Governments which fail to submit reports are able, by their unilateral action in defiance of their solemn international obligations frequently undertaken, to exempt themselves from the whole procedure of international supervision of the extent of conformity of their law and practice with the international Conventions which they have ratified. No means exist in such cases of determining whether ratification affords the measure of labour protection which should be its sole justification, or whether it is a mere pretence in order to obtain international credit for which there is no title in national labour conditions. In certain cases, moreover, such a procedure is grossly unfair to other Governments, which by submitting regular and detailed reports subject

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