NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
Top Secret.
Confidential. *itestricted. *Unclassified.
Confidential
DRAFT
s/o Letter
Type 1 +
To:-
M.D.I Gass Esq
CMG..
Acting Governor, Hong Kong
From
11.5
bu.s. Carter
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
letter lo!
R. G. Foggen Floo
Curtis Green
His melination was to Suggest that, if they were in general acceptable here, you might take the
initiative in formulating détailed fireposals along
These liries and not
wait for industry to make the running,
You were of course, aware that we had various labour
matters scheduled for discussion with the Governor on
his recent arrival here I am now writing to let you
> and know the outcome. these discussions. You no doubt saw
he
Hetherington.
the brief which the Governer/brought with him, and which
had been prepared for him by the Commissioner of Labour.
before he left Hong Kong. Our discussions on labour
matters were, in fact, confined to matters covered in al-
e brief as set out under the following heads and
Hours of Work
2.We were very interested to learn of the counter-
proposals under this head which you expect to be put
forward by employers' organisations (as detailed in para.6
Sir David of the brief
3
thought it might be helpful to you, in
the context of your further consultations with industry,
Them
if you knew our preliminary reactions to those proposals,
roposals
the
At first sight, they seem to us to offer the possibilty of a considerable advance, but whether this will, in fact,
be the case will depend on three main criteria:-
(1) the agreed calendar;
(2) overtime arrangements during the transitional
period;
(3) embodiment of the calendar in legislation.
As perede (1), if you could achieve an greed calendar of
not more than four years covering the whole of the
transitional period required for the introduction of a
standard 48 hour week in all industries, you may take it
that this would be acceptable to Ministers, so far as
the time factor is concerned;
be preferred
it although would naturally
prefer it if this period could be shortened.
All this is, of course, very much tied up with the
/second
97499 St.S.