Mr. Gaminara
Reference..
Ephemeral
12
I told you that I would begin the drafting of a submission about Hong Kong's proposal to amend their Illegal Strikes and Lock-Outs Ordinance from the labour standpoint making no recommendation but leaving that until the political aspect of the matter has been considered.
2.
I have taken the submission to a certain point. But I have not dealt at length with the strong objections of the Overseas Labour Adviser to Hong Kong's proposals because it is difficult to do this until we know whether we are going to accept his view that the Bill should be returned to Hong Kong for them to think again or whether we are going to over-rule thèm and recommend to the Minister that Hong Kong be allowed to modify their existing Ordinance on the limited lines proposed. All I can say at this stage is that it seems to me that we shall have considerable difficulty in going against Mr. Foggon's recom- mendations because I think that they are firmly based on the incompatibility between the Bill and the 1960 Model Ordinance. If you wish to interest yourself with this aspect of the matter I would suggest that you read Mr. Foggon's draft Saving Despatch below his minute of 20 May on HKK 5/8.
3.
In my view we should perhaps both consider the force of Mr. Foggon's Departmental objections and having done so discuss with Mr. Carter so as to decide our general line before spending much more time on the submission.
Maur
(H. H. Stewart)
6 June 1969