THE DUKE'S CONFERENCE
SIR,—It is strange, indeed, that—as mentioned in your 'Notebook' (September 3)—the press, so far, has taken little notice of the Duke of Edinburgh's 'Study Conference on the Human Problems of Industrial Communities within the Commonwealth and Empire,' to be held next year in Oxford. This 'sin of omission' is the more regrettable, as the comprehensive and imaginative programme of this Con- ference stands out in sharp relief against the plain statement made in the annual report of the Ministry of Labour, that in spite of much lip-service which is being paid to the imperative demand for more and better 'human relations in industry,' progress during the last year in this field of constructive social-. politics is meagre in relation to the ground to be covered.
Important, however, as the industrial sector is, the impact of the human factor on our economic life in general is likely to exceed by far that on industrial communities, and
deserves to be dealt with as an indispensable item of the Conference programme. It is true the younger generation (between twenty-five and forty-five years of age) will be given the chance to voice their ideals and ideas as to their status in work and life as industrial wage or salary earners, but the programme—as far as its details have been published—seems to ignore that good human relations in industry too presuppose essential contributions from almost every province and social life, beginning with the young workers' education for the tremendous issues at stake. After all, man's longing for better 'human relations,' in industry as everywhere else, originates in the last analysis less in a conception of material pro- gress, based on economic principles, than in mankind's perennial vision of human 'happi- ness.—Yours faithfully,
LEON ZEITLIN
69 Greencroft Gardens, London, NW6
Previous page
