800.504/1–3045
The Australian Minister (Eggleston) to the Acting Secretary of State (Grew)1
Sir: I have the honour to inform you, on instructions from my Government, that his Majesty’s Government of the Commonwealth of Australia is of opinion that an international conference on Employment Policy should be convened at an early date with the object of securing an international agreement on this subject. I am instructed to enquire whether the United States Government would be willing to associate itself with the calling of such a conference after the necessary preliminary arrangements have been discussed and completed. In support of this proposal the following considerations are submitted.
A main purpose of international collaboration is to achieve freedom from want, and there is a wide recognition of the fact that in most countries of the world that object can be achieved only by maintaining a high level of employment. Many declarations of policy have been made with that end in view. Reference may be made to such a declaration in the final act of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture2 and to the “Philadelphia Charter” of 19443 of the International Labour Organisation, as well as to those made on behalf of individual nations, of which a notable example was President Roosevelt’s recent declaration.4
[Page 1329]It is also recognised that without high employment in all countries, the world’s production and consumption must remain continuously short of levels that are technically practicable, and that many wage-earners and others are deprived of the purchasing power to demand the goods and services which they need. The achievement of a high and stable level of employment in all countries is therefore one of the main objectives of international collaboration.
But despite the general acceptance of this objective discussions on practical arrangements have been concentrated primarily on the mechanism of international trade and finance, and on matters of general welfare such as food and agriculture. The Australian Government, for some time, has been convinced that proposals for international welfare will not get very far unless they are accompanied by a more direct attack on the problem. For this reason, Australia has suggested that, in addition to other agreements, there should be an international agreement by which subscribing countries would bind themselves to pursue domestic policies aimed at maintaining high levels of employment.
The Australian Government regards such an agreement as of the most vital international concern. The growth of unemployment in any major industrial country or group of countries depresses the export incomes and general economic activity of other countries and makes it extremely difficult for them to maintain high employment in their own territories.
Moreover failure to maintain high employment would threaten the effective operation of such financial and trade arrangements as are being discussed. Any individual country that persisted in a high employment policy in the face of declining employment elsewhere would soon find that its balance of payments was adversely affected. It would then be faced with the choice of either abandoning its own domestic policy or of turning away from international collaboration towards import restrictions, export subsidies, or exchange depreciation. In short, if other countries fail to maintain high employment, any country may find international economic collaboration incompatible with the maintenance of its own employment.
The Australian Government holds the view that if international economic collaboration is to be made effective and lasting, the United Nations must undertake to provide fundamental conditions that make such collaboration both practicable and consistently advantageous. It believes that these conditions can be provided only if the larger industrial countries, at least, are prepared to take whatever domestic measures are necessary to maintain a high and stable level of employment within their own territories.
It is suggested that all international economic agreements that may be adopted by the United Nations should include among their [Page 1330] purposes the maintenance of high levels of employment throughout the world, and that as many nations as possible should complement those agreements with one specifically designated as an Employment Agreement and especially directed to the end of achieving and maintaining a high level of employment.
The Australian Government believes that the holding of a conference on Employment Policy and the adoption of an Agreement would do much to promote the general aims of the United Nations.
I am sending copies of this despatch to the British Ambassador and to the New Zealand Minister.
I have [etc.]
- Handed to the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs (Clayton) by the Financial Counselor of the Australian Legation (Brigden) on February 2, 1945. On the same date similar notes were handed to Mr. Clayton by the First Secretary of the New Zealand Legation (Reid) and the Counselor of the British Embassy (Opie).↩
- For text of the Final Act of the United Nations Conference on Food and Agriculture, see Department of State Bulletin, June 19, 1943, p. 546; for documentation on the Conference, held at Hot Springs, Virginia, May 18–June 3, 1943, see Foreign Relations, 1943, vol. i, pp. 820 ff.↩
- Declaration concerning the aims and purposes of the International Labor Office; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, May 20, 1944, p. 482; for documentation on the interest of the United States in the convening of a regular conference of the International Labor Organization, see Foreign Relations, 1944, vol. ii, pp. 1007 ff.↩
- Reference here is probably to the President’s State of the Union Address to Congress on January 6, 1945. For text of the President’s comments regarding trade and commerce, see Department of State Bulletin, January 7, 1945, pp. 27–28.↩