SECOND SESSION OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL

QUESTIONS

(Geneva, Switzerland, April 21-May 5, 1938)

Delegate: Elsa Castendyck, Director of the Delinquency Division, Children's Bureau, Department of Labor.

The following countries were represented at the meeting of the Advisory Committee on Social Questions: Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Rumania, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Yugoslavia. In addition to the delegates, representatives of the International Labor Office, of the Health Organization of the League of Nations and of the League Secretariat were in attendance at the meeting.

The Committee received the progress report of the Director and the reports of the liaison officers with the International Labor Office and the Health Organization. Reports were also received from a number of correspondent members. Since the last session of the Committee, 38 governments had submitted reports on legislative and administrative development in regard to child welfare. The Committee recommended to the Council of the League of Nations the appointment of six international organizations as correspondent members.

Among the topics on the agenda were:

(1) Traffic in women and children and in obscene publications: summary of government reports; adoption of a new and improved questionnaire.

(2) Rehabilitation of prostitutes; summary of annual reports; prevention of prostitution, especially with regard to minors.

(3) Recreational aspects of the cinema: report consisting of a digest of the material collected and discussed in previous years and suggestions concerning censorship and dissemination of information concerning suitability of films for exhibition to children.

(4) Placing of children in families: discussions concerning the classifications of children to be removed from the care of their parents; study of the child and of the proposed home and the supervision over education and training. (It was decided that the report of the Rapporteur should be published in two volumes.)

(5) Illegitimate children: legal aspects of illegitimacy and discussion of the social complications.

Although it did not appear on the agenda, the question of the protection of children in time of war was discussed at considerable length. It was decided that it would not be appropriate for the Committee to make any recommendation to the Council. The Committee unanimously adopted a resolution by which it affirmed and adopted on its own behalf the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, commonly known as the Declaration of Geneva, adopted by the Assembly of the League of Nations at its fifth session in 1924. It was decided to hold the next session of the Advisory Committee on Social Questions at Geneva beginning June 19, 1939. Additional information concerning the second session may be obtained from the Department of Labor, Washington, D. C., or from the Library of the League of Nations at Geneva, Switzerland.

MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL SUGAR COUNCIL1

Delegates:

(London, England, April 27-30, 1938)

For the United States of America:

Herschel V. Johnson, Counselor of Embassy, American Embassy,
London;

Clifford C. Taylor, Ph.D., Agricultural Attaché, American
Embassy, London.

Representing the Commonwealth of the Philippines on the American Delegation: Joaquin M. Elizalde.2

The International Sugar Council discussed the statistical position with reference to supply of and demand for sugar in the free market, but took no action on export quotas for the current quota year; approved procedural steps necessary to bring the International Sugar Agreement definitively into effect among the ratifying governments; took administrative action on the interpretation and application of several articles of the agreement; and provided for a further meeting of the Council on July 5, 1938, to review the whole situation and to consider such further measures as might be deemed advisable.

1 For an account of the origin and functions of the International Sugar Council, see p. 129 of this publication.

'Did not attend.

EIGHTY-THIRD SESSION OF THE GOVERNING BODY OF THE INTERNATIONAL LABOR OFFICE1

(Geneva, Switzerland, April 28-30, 1938)

Government Representative: Richardson Saunders, Administrative Assistant to the Secretary of Labor.

Adviser: Llewellyn E. Thompson, Jr., American Consul, Geneva.

The Governing Body at its Eighty-third Session:

(1) Received the announcement of Harold B. Butler (Great Britain), Director of the International Labor Office, of his intention to resign his post, and placed the question on the agenda of the next session;

(2) Examined the report of the Technical Committee of Experts on Migration for Settlement and decided to refer the report to the governments and to the Secretary General of the League of Nations;

(3) Fixed April 30, 1938 for the first meeting of the Committee which will review the report of the Technical Tripartite Conference on the Textile Industry, Washington,2 and directed the Committee to recommend steps which might be taken on the basis of the report.

It was decided that the next session of the Governing Body would open in Geneva on May 31, 1938.

TECHNICAL TRIPARTITE MEETING ON THE COAL-MINING INDUSTRY'

Representatives:

(Geneva, Switzerland, May 2-10, 1938)

For the Government: Ralph J. Watkins, Ph.D., Professor of Economics and Director of the Bureau of Business Research, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

For the Employers: Duncan C. Kennedy, Secretary, Kanawha Operators' Association, Charleston, West Virginia.

1 For an account of the origin and functions of the International Labor Organization and for a statement of the financial provisions made for American participation in the activities of the Organization, see p. 112 of this publication. 2 See Conference Series 35, p. 59.

3

See p. 84 of this publication.

4 See account of the International Labor Organization, p. 112 of this publication, for a statement of financial provisions made for American participation in this meeting.

For the Workers: A. D. Lewis, International Representative, United Mine Workers of America, Washington, D. C.

1

This meeting was called pursuant to a recommendation of the 1936 session of the International Labor Conference 1 with a view to reaching an understanding concerning hours of work in the coal-mining industry which could be used as a basis for a questionnaire to be sent to the interested governments preparatory to the drafting of a satisfactory international convention. Employers' and workers' delegates as well as government representatives came from most of the 10 nations represented at the meeting and, in addition, representatives of the Governing Body of the International Labor Office and of the Secretariat of the League of Nations attended the sessions.

The Committee used a report by the International Labor Office as a basis for an extended general discussion which included consideration of the economic and social factors which would necessarily affect the problem of regulation of hours of work in the coal-mining industry. Attention was also given to the advisability of concluding a separate international convention covering the hours of work in the industry or of permitting the question to be included as an item in a general convention on the reduction of hours of work which is being given consideration by the International Labor Organization. It was decided to recommend that the question, which is on the agenda of the 1938 session of the International Labor Conference 2 as a part of the topic concerning generalization of the reduction of the hours of work, be placed also on the agenda of the 1939 session of the Conference as a separate item with a view to final discussion and a decision as to the most practical method of securing international cooperation in this field.

NINTH INTERNATIONAL ORNITHOLOGICAL CONGRESS

Delegates:

1

(Rouen, France, May 8-13, 1938)

Alexander Wetmore, Ph. D., D. Sc., Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, in charge of the United States National Museum, Chairman of the Delegation;

James P. Chapin, Ph. D., Associate Curator of Continental Old World Birds, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York;

'See Conference Series 30, p. 77.

'See p. 85 of this publication.

118715-39——6

James Cowan Greenway, Jr., Assistant Curator of Birds, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts;

Lawrence E. Hicks, Ph. D., Bureau of the Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, Columbus, Ohio;

T. Gilbert Pearson, LL. D., President Emeritus, National Association of Audubon Societies, New York, New York.

The international congresses on ornithology are organized by the Committee of One Hundred, a continuing body composed of representatives of ornithological workers in various countries. The first such congress was held in 1884.

There were present at the Ninth International Ornithological Congress approximately 300 persons representing 29 countries.

Two of the principal papers presented at this meeting had to do with (1) the recent discovery of a form of peacock native in the Congo region of Africa and (2) population studies of the European starling in America.

The invitation of the American Ornithological Union for the next congress to meet in the United States in 1942 was accepted.

The full proceedings of this Congress and the papers presented will be published under the editorship of Jean Delacour, Secretary, Seine-Infèrieure, Clères, France.

MEETING OF THE PERMANENT COMMITTEE OF THE INTERNATIONAL OFFICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH'

(Paris, France, May 9-19, 1938)

Representative: Hugh S. Cumming, M.D., Sc.D., LL.D., Surgeon General, retired, United States Public Health Service.

Nearly all of the 55 governments signatory to the International Sanitary Convention of 1926 (45 Stat. 2492) were represented at the May-1938 meeting of the Permanent Committee of the International Office of Public Health.

Because of the apparent spread of yellow fever and new developments regarding the identity of so-called "Jungle Fever", the extension of aerial navigation in South America and Africa, where these diseases are endemic, and because of the anxiety felt in infectible but not

For an account of the origin and functions of the International Office of Public Health, see p. 106 of this publication; for an account of the October-1937 meeting of the Committee, see ante, p. 53.