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the expediting of refrigerated rail transport for perishable merchandise; the prompt return of freight cars; the provisional application of a customs convention covering goods transported by road and the negotiation of a standard commercial contract covering the transport of such goods; and the development of international rules on the transport of dangerous goods. At the same time, an ad hoc committee of experts representing member governments recommended that the Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East approve the setting up of a standing committee on inland transport and the bringing together of the various national railroad administrations into an association to pool their knowledge and experience.

In the field of civil aviation, in addition to the coming into force of the two annexes to the Chicago convention mentioned above, three more annexes establishing, respectively, regulations to guard against collision of aircraft and insure smooth handling of air traffic and the standardizing of safety measures at airports, search and rescue services around the world for aircraft in distress, and plans for airport approach and runway lighting were brought to a point where it appears that they will be given world-wide effect during 1951. At the same time, ICAO began its program of technical assistance to underdeveloped countries which will help them obtain the managerial and technical personnel which they need. This will include training of airport safety chiefs, aviation communications engineers, meteorologists, air-traffic control specialists, civil-aviation administrators, etc. Experts will also be sent to these countries to help develop airdromes, aviation schools, and national civil-aviation administrations, among other things.

In the field of telecommunications the North American regional broadcasting agreement was concluded and signed at Washington under the auspices of the International Telecommunication Union, a specialized agency of the United Nations. This agreement endeavors to bring order into the broadcasting spectrum in the North American

area.

The Administrative Council of the International Telecommunication Union arranged for the convening of an extraordinary administrative radio conference to be held in 1951 to replace a similar conference scheduled for September 1950 which had been canceled because of the world situation. It is essential that a conference of this nature be held in the near future so that order can be brought into the frequency spectrum where an increasing amount of chaos and anarchy prevails.

The International Radio Consultative Committee, a permanent organ of the International Telecommunication Union, accomplished

the standardization of lines for transmission of television in western continental Europe.

The Transport and Communications Commission, working with the Statistical Commission, made considerable progress during the year in getting general agreement on a uniform basis for the maintaining and reporting of transport statistics. This will make it possible for the data reported by one country to be compared with that reported by other countries so that the world picture will be meaningful. The two commissions worked out and sent to governments a series of uniform headings under which data will be reported in the fields of railways, highways, inland waterways, ocean shipping, and aviation.

B. LABOR QUESTIONS

A number of developments in the International Labor Organization and the United Nations and its related organizations of interest to and affecting workers and trade-unions have occurred during the past year. In addition to population and migration items treated under separate headings below, there were other significant undertakings and additional developments in the fields of forced labor and freedom of association (trade-union rights), and in the rise of the new antiCommunist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

1. International Approach to Labor Problems

World labor problems are generally brought to a focus at three major levels. In the first place there are the private nongovernmental international trade-union federations which are composed of constituent national trade-union organizations. These internationa! federations are established to undertake cooperative activity by and for the constituent national organizations. The largest of these "internationals" are the new anti-Communist International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the pro-Communist World Federation of Trade Unions.

In the second place there exists the International Labor Organization, which has special jurisdiction in matters relating primarily to the interests of workers. Its governing structure is composed not only of the representatives of governments but also of the representatives of independent worker and employer groups. The work of the ILO, although largely of a technical nature of primary concern to workers and management, is also (in part) related to the broader economic and social problems affecting all segments of society. These problems generally find their focus in the Economic and Social Council and its commissions.

In the third place, precisely because world labor is of necessity concerned with the broader implications of its own interests, a number of labor problems arise in the Economic and Social Council and at times in the General Assembly. Forced labor, freedom of association, migration, full employment, and economic development are examples of labor questions or problems of interest to labor which have arisen not only in the ILO but also in the United Nations. They have also been the concern of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, the World Federation of Trade Unions, and other labor groups.

From the time of its inception in 1919 through the Second World War, the ILO concentrated on the establishment of progressive labor standards through the adoption of international conventions and recommendations. Since World War II, and more especially during the year 1950, the ILO has moved steadily toward an action program offering technical assistance to its member countries in most matters of concern to labor and management. During the past year ILO technical-assistance missions have been at work in all sections of the world, assisting governments (a) to establish social-security systems; (b) to establish their manpower programs in such a way as to use more adequately the labor force through technical and vocational education and training and through the organization of employment services; (c) to improve their labor information and statistical services; (d) to improve the labor inspection services; (e) to safeguard the workers' health; and (f) to work out techniques for the peaceful settlement of industrial disputes. The ILO has established manpower offices in Asia and in Latin America and will shortly establish such an office in the Near East.

LABOR, POPULATION, AND MIGRATION

In any discussion dealing with such matters as standards of living, economic development, and full employment and productivity, as well

as other economic and social questions, immediate consideration is of necessity given to factors involving labor and manpower, population trends and pressures, and migration potentialities. There is a natural desire on the part of workers adversely affected by population surpluses to migrate to areas where labor is in greater demand. Because wage earners are generally the most vulnerable segment of the population and are thus most adversely affected by conditions which make it impossible to utilize fully their primary resource, their ability to work, labor has shown increasing concern with all economic considerations affecting the livelihood, the standard of living, and the freedom of workers.

Because of their vulnerable situation, as well as their natural desire for the improvement of their lot, workers are the object of beguiling propaganda campaigns to win them to international communism, even though Communists would not only take away their political liberties but would also make them subject to the forced labor of an economic machine run by and for totalitarian leaders. The problems confronting labor are many and diverse. In most countries of the world, labor has rejected communism as a possible solution to its problems, recognizing that it would not only not solve those problems but would also deny to workers the rights of free speech, free assembly, and free organization and, in truth, would recreate a slavery which should long ago have faded from the earth. The problems facing labor, however, remain. Some of these are peculiarly the problems of workers while others involve the general population, with workers being the most acutely affected. Problems connected with surplus population and migration are of the latter kind. There are indicated below some of the factors and activities affecting labor, population, and migration which claimed the attention of the United Nations and related organizations during 1950.

POPULATION TRENDS AND PRESSURES

The population of the world is increasing at the rate of over 25,000,000 a year. Each day the earth must provide for some 75,000 more inhabitants.

This rapid population growth is a matter of deep concern to those planning the economic and social betterment of the world's people. There is the constant danger that economic development and social welfare will not keep pace with population increase in many countries. The splendid achievements of modern public health and medical science have given us the means of reducing the death rate throughout

the world. But the enormous population growth caused by this humanitarian accomplishment is creating new problems in countries already suffering from the pressure of population on available economic resources. We cannot afford to see the economic gains of United Nations and United States technical assistance dissipated simply in maintaining more people at the same low standards of life. In the Population Commission the United States has taken a leading role in promoting the work necessary to obtain proper knowledge and understanding of the interrelationships of population and economic and social changes. Do economic gains in undeveloped areas merely increase the rate of population growth, thus perpetuating poverty in a constantly growing mass of humanity? What can be done to meet these problems? What answers are given by technological progress and by the social sciences?

In the past year the Population Commission sponsored a major study of these questions by the United Nations that summarizes present knowledge of the effects of economic and social progress on population growth and, correspondingly, the effects of population changes on economic and social progress. To supplement existing knowledge a field study under joint United Nations and Indian auspices is now being initiated in selected areas in India. This field survey is to make an on-the-spot study of the effects on population changes of such developments as hydroelectric projects, irrigation works, the establishment of industries, and the growth of cities.

A major international population problem is the movement across international boundaries. The Population Commission is charged with responsibility for coordinating international research in this field. As is pointed out in the section on migration, the United Nations, the specialized agencies, and the Foreign Ministers of the United States, France, and the United Kingdom are making a coordinated attack upon the migration problem, using the studies prepared by the United Nations under the auspices of the Population Commission and the Social Commission. During the coming year work in this field will be focused on the pressing problems of European migration to overseas countries.

Another major interest of the Population Commission, together with the Statistical Commission, has been assistance to governments in improving the quality and comparability of censuses taken in 1950 and 1951. The two commissions have made recommendations to member governments regarding census enumeration and tabulation. These have been incorporated in published studies of census methods. These efforts, coupled with those of other international agencies such as the Food and Agriculture Organization, have made an important

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