234 Melville to Evatt and Chifley

Following from Melville for the Minister for External Affairs and the Treasurer.

Employment Resolution.

1. At the final session of the Commission III(iii) the compromised Resolution referred to in our 31 [1] was adopted. New Zealand sought without success to have the clause on employment strengthened. We argued that we could not support a Resolution which did not recommend a specific agreement on employment and expressed the view that 'the harmonising of national policies' of employment had little meaning.

2. We urged separate Australian resolution [2] and made a statement of our attitude. The vote was taken without further discussion, the United Kingdom, France, Poland and a few smaller countries voted with us but the resolution was not accepted.