Merchant Seamen And The War

INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE STUDIES AND REPORTS Series P Seamen No. 5 MERCHANT SEAMEN AND THE WAR Record of the Twelfth Session of the Joint Maritime Commission London, 26-30 June 1942 MONTREAL, 1943 PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE, 3480 University Street, Montreal, Canada Published in the United Kingdom for the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE by P. S. King Staples, Ltd., London. Distributed in the United States by the INTERNATIONAL LABOUR OFFICE, Washington Branch, 734 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION . . 1 PART I. Report of the Acting Director of the International Labour Office ... 4 PART II. Attendance at the Session 25 PART III. Resolutions adopted 29 PART IV. Record of Proceedings 34 Opening of the Session 34 Report of the Acting Director 37 General Discussion 37 Ratification of Conventions 41 Composition of the Joint Maritime Commission 67 Appointment of a Consultative Sub-Committee 69 Safety Measures 70 Welfare 108 Equality of Treatment of Seafarers 128 International Maritime Charter 145 Conditions of Service of Seafarers 148 Organisation of Merchant Fleets 149 International Agreement on the Utilisation of Merchant Shipping 149 The Shipping Industry and the Peace Conference 151 Closing Speeches 151 INTRODUCTION The Twelfth Session of the Joint Maritime Commission was convened in accordance with a decision taken by the Governing Body of the International Labour Office at its Ninetieth Session, held in New York in October and November 1941. The Governing Body then decided that in view of the long interval that had elapsed since the previous meeting of the Commission in Paris in March 1935 and the many important developments, including of coursethe outbreak of war, that had taken place in the meantime, a meet ing of the Commission should be held if both sides of the Commis sion the representatives of shipowners and those of seamen agreed that a meeting would be desirable. This agreement was speedily forthcoming, and the Commission was accordingly conven ed to meet in London in the latter half of June 1942 with an agenda confined to two subjects, namely 1. The Report of the Acting Director of the International Labour Office on the maritime work of the Office since the previous session of the Commission 2. Wartime conditions and merchant seamen. The Commission met in London on 26-30 June 1942. As was inevitable in war conditions, the organisation of the meeting present ed difficulties many of the representatives of shipowners and seafar ers who had been most eminent and active in the work of the Com mission in the past were unable to attend and measures had to be taken to replace them, and the preparatory work had to be under taken under the handicap of the circumstances that had led to a drastic reduction in the staff of the Office and the transfer of the majority of the remainder from Geneva, Switzerland, to Montreal, Canada. These difficulties and the steps taken to overcome them are briefly indicated in the Report of the Acting Director of the Office, which is reproduced as Part I of this volume, while the fact that despite the war it proved possible to gather a widely represent ative meeting is amply demonstrated by the list of members, depu ties, substitutes and advisers which is given in Part II. Sittings of the Commission are always held in private and the minutes of its proceedings are confidential documents whichreceive only a limited circulation within the International Labour Organisa 2 TWELFTH SESSION OF THE JOINT MARITIME COMMISSION tion. The publication of this record of the Twelfth Session is without precedent and cannot be regarded as constituting a precedent for future sessions of the Commission. It is, however, justified by the quite exceptional circumstances in which the Session was held...