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ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION

Industries. Camel-rearing is mostly in the hands of the Anaza in the N., the Qahtan and Shammar in the centre, and the "Ajman and Muteir in the E.; but the herds of the first-named tribe far outnumber those of any other. The centre of the camel trade is in Damascus (where almost all the capital is supplied) and to a less extent in Bagdad. In normal times, the chief tribes are said to possess 720,000 head, but during the World War herds were much depleted. Only the surplus, possibly numbering 45,000 per ann., and those not the best, are sold. A little horse- breeding is carried on by the emir of Nejd and by the Shahran tribes and there is a small export to Mesopotamia and Syria. Considerable numbers of the white, large-boned breeds of asses of El Hasa are sent to Egypt. The fisheries of Arabia, other than pearl, are valuable for the supply of local needs and are capable of development. The salting of fish is an industry at most coast towns, but more particularly those of the Red Sea and Oman; considerable quantities are sent into the interior. During the war operations, some attention was paid incidentally to the study of the Farsan pearl industry and to the possibilities of its development. The rock salt quarries of Salif, opposite Kamaran I., were worked under the control of the Ottoman debt and 105,000 tons of salt were exported to India and the Straits Settlements in 1908. Just prior to the World War an English company was working the quarries; in 1920, operations had ceased for the time being.

Bibliography. Alois Musil, Nord Arabien, Vorbericht iiber die Forschungsreise 1908-9 (1909), and Zur Zeitgeschichte von Arabien (1918); G. Wyman Bury, The Land of Uz (1911), Arabia Infelix (1915) and Pan-Islam (1919) ; A. J. B. Wavell, A Modern Pilgrim in Mecca and a Siege in Sanaa (1912 and 1918) ; C. Snouck Hurgronjc, The Revolt in Arabia (1917); The Holy War " made in Germany " (1915) and Nederland en de Islam (1915); Barclay Raunkiaer, Gen- nem Wahhabiternes Land paa Kamelryg; C. Doughty, Travels in Arabia, new eel. with introduction by T. E. Lawrence (1920); I. D. 1128, A Handbook of Arabia, vol. i., General, compiled by the Geo- graphical Section of the Naval Intelligence Division, Naval Staff, Admiralty (1915).

Among valuable contributions to the study of Arabia are the fol- lowing papers published in the Geographical Journal: Captain S. S. Butler, " Baghdad to Damascus via Jauf, Northern Arabia," vol. xxxiii. (May 1909); Douglas Carruthers, "A Journey in North- Western Arabia," vol. xxxv. (March 1910); Lt.-Col. S. B. Miles, "On the Border of the Great Desert: a Journey in Oman, "vol. xxxvi. (Aug. IQIO); Captain G. Leachman, A Journey in North-Eastern Arabia, vol. xxxyii. (March 1911), and " A Journey through Central Arabia," vol. xliii. (May 1914) ; Gertrude Lowthian Bell, " A Journey in Northern Arabia," vol. xhv. (July 1914); H. St. J. B. Philby, " Southern Nejd " (with map, scale 1 11,250,000), vol. Iv. (March 1920) and "Across Arabia : From the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea" (with map, scale i :2,ooo,ooo), vol. Ivi. (Dec. 1920) ; D. G. Hogarth, " War and Discovery in Arabia," vol. Iv. (June 1920); and "An Account of A. Beneyton's Railway Surveys in the Yemen, and Maps," vol. xliii. (Jan. 1914).

Maps. Map on the scale of 1:1,000,000 compiled by the Geo- graphical Section, General Staff, No. 2,555: Sheets 137 (Esh Sham, Damascus 1918); 138 (Bagdad 1918); H36 (Cairo 1918); H37 (El Djaufi9i8); H38 (Basra, 1918); 639 (Hofuf, 1920) ; 637 (Medina 1921) ; and Sheet 638 (Riyadh) was in course of preparation (1921). Map on the scale of I :i,ooo,ooo, compiled by the Survey of India: Sheets of Kunfida, San'a and Mukalla (1917). Map of Arabia and the Persian Gulf, Survey of India; scale I in. =48 m., two sheets; and scale I in. =32 m., four sheets. Yemen: Chemin de Fer Hodeidah Sanaa et Embranchements. echelle 1-250,000, A. Beneyton, Paris 1913. (H. W. M.)


ARABI PASHA (1839-1911), Egyptian soldier and revolutionary leader (see 2.283), died at Cairo Sept. 18 1911.


ARBER, EDWARD (1836-1912), English man of letters (see 2. 323), was killed in a taxicab accident in London Nov. 23 1912.


ARBITRATION AND CONCILIATION [LABOUR] (see 2.331). Subsequently to 1910, many countries found it necessary to revise their position in regard to arbitration and conciliation in industrial disputes. The growing organization of workers in trade unions which was a marked feature of the last generation rapidly increased as a result of the demand for labour occasioned by the World War; and the feelings aroused by, and the con- ditions resulting from, the war led to increasing demands on behalf of workers in all countries, which the strong economic position of the workers enabled them to enforce. The war itself in certain instances necessitated exceptional measures in

order that the output of munitions of war might not be hindered by strikes and lockouts. Further, the development of industry has been towards more and more specialization and a still closer inter-relation of industry, so that the effects of strikes and lockouts extend far beyond those immediately concerned and may have most disastrous effects on the public. For this reason the state is forced, in the interests of the community, to take cognisance of trade disputes.

UNITED KINGDOM

The position in the United Kingdom, at the outbreak of the World War, was that questions affecting rates of wages and conditions of employment were settled normally by discussion between the parties concerned. During the course of half a century, voluntary conciliation boards, standing joint committees or corresponding procedure had been established in all well- organized industries and this procedure was instrumental in settling large numbers of disputes. In certain important in- dustries, e.g. agriculture and transport, the workpeople and employers were not sufficiently organized in associations to render such permanent machinery practicable. The statutory powers of intervention in labour disputes held by the Government were derived solely from the Conciliation Act, 1896, an Act framed upon a purely voluntary basis. A connecting link be- tween the activities of the conciliation boards and those of the Government in the settlement of labour disputes was the pro- vision in the regulations governing the procedure of a number of boards for the reference of differences to arbitration under the auspices of the appropriate Government department (since 1916 the Ministry of Labour), and further by the policy of the de- partment in not intervening in a dispute until the parties had exhausted their efforts to bring about an amicable settlement.

During the period immediately following the passing of the Conciliation Act, comparatively little use was made of the pro- cedure of the Act, but the three years immediately preceding the war were years of very marked industrial unrest in the United Kingdom and there was a corresponding increase in the use made of the provisions of the Act. Serious consideration was given- by the Government to the question of strengthening their powers in relation to labour disputes, but up to the outbreak of war no steps had been taken to formulate legislative proposals. In this connexion, reference may be made to the report of Sir George (afterwards Lord) Ask with of Dec. 1912, on the Industrial Disputes Investigation Act of Canada (Cd. 6603), and the report of the Industrial Council on Industrial Agreements (Cd. 6952).

Committee on Production. The needs of the war and the ab- normal conditions arising therefrom made both necessary and possible much stronger Government action in regard to stoppages of work. The outburst of patriotic feeling which followed the declaration of war resulted in employers and workpeople vol- untarily bringing to a close the existing and pending disputes, but the economic conditions resulting from the war soon pro- duced a fresh series of labour difficulties. In Feb. 1915, the Committee on Production, consisting of Sir George Askwith, Sir Francis Hopwood (Lord Southborough) and Sir George Gibb, representing the Board of Trade, the Admiralty and the War Office respectively, was established by the Government to enquire into and report as to the best steps to be taken " to ensure that the productive power of employees in engineering and ship-building establishments working for Government purposes should be made fully available, so as to meet the needs of the nation in the present emergency." With the establishment of the Ministry of Munitions, the functions of the Committee in re- lation to production were absorbed by that Ministry; but in the meantime the Committee had developed, as a result of the acceptance by the Government of one of its earlier recommenda- tions on the subject of stoppages of work, into an arbitration tribunal. It had no statutory position until the passing of the first Munitions of War Act in July 1915, but it quickly developed into the principal arbitration tribunal for the settlement of labour disputes and attained remarkable success. In 1917 the