The meeting of the Mining Association and the Miners' Federation
on Thursday takes place in more favourable circumstances than the meetings of these bodies for some time past. The Association has been empowered to discuss the question of wages, though not to fix them, on a national basis, thus enabling the whole problem to be taken into view at the same time. The second favourable circumstance is that the committee of the International Labour Conference on the hours of work in mines has been able to agree on a draft convention to limit hours to seven and three-quarters a day. Though ratification is not yet secure, fears of foreign competition may thereby be diminished. Another subsidiary of the League which has been doing useful work is the. World. Conference for the Limitation of the Manufacture of Narcotic Drugs. Although the British Government has expressed its objection to stricter forms of limitation, some progress has been made towards the adoption of the Draft Convention prepared by the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Opium, and this would be a considerable step in the right direction. We very much regret that the Director of the International Labour Office made, in his last Report, some quite—unfounded charges against British delegations, and has drawn severe rebukes upon himself.
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