206 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Coming to the other speakers. I first propose to deal with the observation which fell from my friend Sir Vithal Chandavarkar. He referred to the Resolution which was moved by Sir Frank Noyce in this House with regard to the International Convention dealing with holidays with pay. I did not, if I may say so, succeed in catching exactly the point that he wanted to make by reference to that speech but I understood him to convey the fact that the Government of India had changed front.
Sir Vithal N. Chandavarkar : No, no.
The Honourable Dr. B. R. Ambedkar : That in 1936 they were opposed to it, while now they are prepared to give recognition to the principle contained in that Convention. I do not think that there has been any change in the position of the Government of India. I have read the debate with some care and attention and I am quite satisfied that the reason which led the Government of the day to oppose the Convention was because of the understanding that if a convention has to be recognised it must be recognised as a whole. It could not be recognised in part and the Government of India, as it was then advised, felt that it was impossible, having regard to the circumstances of this country, to accept the convention as a whole and although therefore they were prepared to accept the principle and also prepared to investigate the possibilities of applying it in some limited manner they could take no other course than the one which was open to them under the circumstances which then prevailed.
Now, my friend Mr. Joshi has made some points in the course of his speech. Two of his points, I must admit, are points of substance. The first point that he made was that although we were limiting the scope of the Bill we have limited it to a factory and we have not agreed to extent the principle at least to an industry. As I said, I admit that this is a point of substance but I must at the same time point out that to have applied it to an industry means that it would be necessary for us to devise some method by which we could pool the resources of those concerns which come under one particular industry. Now, although as I said, I have the fullest sympathy with the point which he has made, it is not possible for us at the present moment, without any experience behind us, to work out a pool system by which all factories within a particular industry could be made to share the cost