Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Reference paragraph 2 my immediately preceding telegram. [1]
Following is summary:
Begins.
The main purpose of international economic collaboration is to
achieve freedom from want. Many declarations have emphasised the
importance of employment in this connection. Without full
employment, production and consumption must remain continuously
short of the levels that are technically and economically
practicable, and many wage earners and others are deprived of the
purchasing power to demand the goods and services 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. Specific reference is made to this in
such instruments as the Final Act of the United Nations Conference
on Food and Agriculture and the 'Philadelphia Charter' of the
International Labour Organisation. President Roosevelt has given
endorsement to the objective of full employment.
Despite the general acceptance in principle of high levels of
employment as an objective, discussions on practical arrangements
for international collaboration have been concentrated primarily
on the mechanism of international trade and finance and matters of
general welfare such as food and agriculture. The Australian
Government has been for some time convinced, however, that
proposals for international welfare collaboration will not get
very far unless they are accompanied by a more direct attack on
the problem of maintaining high levels of employment throughout
the world. For this reason Australia has suggested that in
addition to the monetary and other agreements there should be 'An
international agreement by which subscribing countries would bind
themselves to pursue domestic policies aimed at full employment'.
The achievement of high and stable levels of employment throughout
the world is a matter of international concern. The growth of
unemployment in any major industrial country or group of countries
depresses the export incomes and economic activity of other
countries, and makes it extremely difficult for them to maintain
high employment. Any individual country that persists in a high
employment policy in the face of declining employment elsewhere
would soon find that its balance of payments is adversely
affected.
It is then faced with the choice of either abandoning its own
domestic policy of high employment or of turning away from
international collaboration towards import restrictions, export
subsidies or exchange depreciation. In other words, if other
countries fail to maintain high employment any country may find
international economic collaboration incompatible with the
maintenance of its own employment.
If the international economic collaboration is to be effective and
lasting, the nations must undertake to provide the fundamental
conditions that make such collaboration practicable and
consistently advantageous. These conditions can only be provided
if all major countries are prepared to take whatever domestic
measures are necessary to achieve a high and stable level of
employment in their own countries, as well as collaborating with
other like-minded nations.
It is therefore proposed that as many countries as possible should
adhere to an international employment agreement as the necessary
complement of the various United Nations Agreements that are being
negotiated. It is also suggested that all such other international
agreements should include among their purposes the maintenance of
high levels of employment throughout the world.