or the British Government's proposal of a 56-hour week on deck and 48 in the engine-room, should be adopted. The former failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds -majority by a fraction, but as several of the most important seafaring countries were in the minor- ity, including Great Britain, Japan, Norway and Spain, the con- vention would probably not have been generally applied, had it been actually passed. The sequel, however, showed that legislation is not the only method by which the International Labour Organiza- tion can assist in promoting industrial peace.
Shortly after the dispersal of the conference the International Seamen's Federation held a congress at which the results were dis- cussed. A good deal of dissatisfaction was expressed at the failure to obtain any reduction of hours, and a resolution in favour of an inter- national seamen's strike was moved. The loss, suffering and dis- location which such a strike would have caused, however short its duration, require no emphasis. An amendment was eventually carried, however, inviting the director of the International Labour Office to intervene with a view to securing a conference with the International Shipowners' Association, at which the matter could be reopened on a purely industrial basis. The shipowners agreed to the meeting which took place at Brussels in Jan. 1921 under the presidency of M. Albert Thomas. Two joint committees were appointed to examine in detail the revision of hours of work in the engine-room and on deck respectively. An excellent spirit was shown on both sides, with the result that it is proposed to make practical experiments on selected ships to test the new system of hours pro- posed, which may well pave the way to the first, international collective agreement. Such an agreement would undoubtedly mark an important landmark in industrial history.
International Labour Office. -As regards the development of the International Labour Office itself, its early months were largely occupied in recruiting and training the staff necessary to carry out its numerous duties. They were gradually drawn to- gether from different countries, and in spite of the variety of language and tradition had at the end of six months attained a degree of unity and cohesion, which enabled the work of the office to reach a very reasonable standard of efficiency and its publication to commence. To the diplomatic and scientific divisions a number of small technical sections were attached, manned by specialists in the problems they were appointed to handle. These sections dealt with unemployment and emigra- tion, agricultural questions, seamen's questions, industrial health, social insurance, including the rehabilitation of men disabled in industry or in war, and cooperation. A further special section was formed to study the social aspects of the Rus- sian revolution in consequence of a decision of the governing body to send a mixed commission of inquiry to ascertain the industrial conditions under the Soviet regime. Owing to the refusal of the Bolshevik Government to admit them, the commission never carried out their mission, but the Russian section which had been formed to prepare the way for their inquiry succeeded in collect- ing a great deal of first-hand evidence, which had not been previously got together. The section made a scientific analysis of the data thus obtained, and produced the first attempt to give an objective account of the Bolshevik industrial system under the title of " Labour Conditions in Soviet Russia."
Finally a small section was formed to carry out the inquiry into production, which was decided upon by the governing body on the motion of the employers' representatives. The object of this inquiry was to ascertain, if possible, how far the diminution of production was due to the shortening of hours of work, the physi- cal and moral exhaustion produced by the war, or to other causes affecting the output of the individual worker, or how far it was due to deeper economic causes produced by the generally chaotic conditions in which the war had left the machinery for the pro- duction and exchange of goods all over the world. To attempt to obtain a clear view of a subject of such complexity was in itself a vast undertaking, but in response to the questionnaire which was sent out in twelve languages to the governments, employers' organizations and the trade unions, a great deal of valuable in- formation about the conditions affecting production in all countries had already been obtained in 1921.
After six months' work in London, the Office was transferred to Switzerland. The Treaty required it to be established at the seat of the League of Nations, and though the secretariat of the League was still in London, the governing body decided for reasons of convenience to transfer the office somewhat earlier to Geneva,
which was designated as the future home of the League. Con- sequently in July 1920, immediately after the close of the Genoa conference, the International Labour Office settled down in its new quarters. After three months' breathing space, it was called upon to take its part in the work of the first assembly of the League. The constitutional relationship between the Labour Or- ganization and the League was generally defined in the Treaty, though some points were not free from ambiguity. The Interna- tional Labour Office is " part of the organization of the League" and is " entitled to the assistance of the secretary-general in any matter in which it can be given"; but it is not subject to the control of the council of the League, nor is the Labour Organiza- tion as a whole in any way dependent upon or subordinated to the assembly, except in the important matter of finance. Unlike the other technical organizations of the League, such as the health or transit organizations, the Labour Organization does not submit its decisions to the council for approval and its agenda are settled not by the council but by its own governing body. Save in the matter of finance, it is an autonomous body attached to the League by ties of common interest rather than by constitutional bonds; in fact, it is a sort of self-governing dominion. The financial link is, however, naturally one of great importance, since money questions are not less vital in international than in nation- al affairs. Hence when the budget of the League was considered by the assembly, the finances of the Labour Organization, which form part of it, also came under review.
As the taxpayer is acutely interested in all public expenditure, it may be interesting to give a rough idea of the cost of the Inter- national Labour Office. Its estimates, which were voted by the Assembly for 1921, amounted to 7 million gold francs, which may be taken as approximately equivalent to 350,000. This total is contributed by the 48 States Members of the League, Great Britain as a first-class State paying about 16,000. If these figures are compared with the cost of an average civil department in England, it will be seen that they are exceedingly modest, and it has to be remembered that they include a great many items which do not enter into the estimates of government departments, such as rent, repairs, postage, telegrams, stationery, printing, etc. Again, the conduct of correspondence and publication on a considerable scale in two or more languages more than doubles the effort of the staff, and conse- quently the cost, which would be entailed if only one language were employed. In order to insure that the utmost economy was being practised, however, and to advise as to the conditions of service, the assembly resolved that a committee of experts should be appointed to inquire into the organization of the secretariat and of the Inter- national Labour Office.
At the beginning of 1921 the Office consisted of 95 men and 115 women drawn from 17 different countries. It could deal with every language, except Chinese, in which books bearing upon industrial questions are published. Its library consisted of about 30,000 volumes, mostly purchased from the International Association for Labour Legislation, who had formed at Basle an unique collection of literature on labour and economic questions. The demands made on the office for information by governments and employers' and work- ers' organizations were growing steadily, and were requiring a con- stantly widening range of knowledge. A general idea of its work on the scientific side may best be gained by enumerating its publica- tions. Every day it issues a small pamphlet entitled Daily Intel- ligence, which gives information about important events connected with labour and industry, which are not usually available to the reader of the daily press. Every week it issues an Official Bulletin, which reports the sittings of the governing body, records the progress of the ratification of the conventions and of the legislation for giving effect to them, and reproduces any important official correspondence. It is, in fact, the official organ of the International Labour Organiza- tion. Every month the office publishes the International Labour Review, which consists partly of studies prepared in the office dealing with the various subjects which concern it, partly of articles con- tributed by well-known economists or by leaders of thought in the industrial and trade-union worlds. Apart from these regular pub- lications, all of which appear both in English and French, the office also issues a legislative series containing reprints or translations in English, French and German, of the principal labour laws passed by the parliaments of the world, as well as a number of special studies and reports on questions of current importance, such as the occupation of the factories by the workers in Italy, the history of the miners' strike in Great Britain, the conditions of labour under the short-lived Soviet regime in Hungary and similar topics, which have an interest to the social student everywhere, but about which he finds it difficult to get trustworthy information. In all its publica- tions the aim of the office is to treat the subject-matter with scien- tific accuracy and complete objectivity, so that they may come to be regarded as really valuable and impartial contributions to social
