Mr. Ferguson suggested that the sounding-board charge could be more justly levelled against the US representatives. He cited the noisy assertions they had made about "slave labour" in Soviet Russia. The NZ Federation of Labour had "joined its yelps to the general hubbub," but little publicity was given to the cablegram which the All-Soviet Central Council of Trade Unions sent to the Federation in reply (Southern Cross, 10.3.49) which read in part:

"The Council fully supports the proposal submitted by the Soviet delegation to the 8th session of the Economic and Social Council of UN for establishing a large international commission of trade unions and international bodies' representatives for thorough and impartial investigation of the real conditions of workers and employees in capitalist countries, the U.S.S.R. and popular democracies. The Council hopes that the Executive of the NZFOL will agree with this proposal and appeal to the NZ government to support the proposal of the Soviet delegation at UN."