Mr. Godden
2016
Reference...... HKK 14/37.
10
Flag
Floy Flags &
HKKIS/2 (25)
(Para D)
stage
Imprisonment of Communist Trade Union
Officials in Hong Kong
Mr. Foggon sent you a copy of his attached minute dated 31 July to Mr. Carter in which he commented on Hong Kong Telegram No.592. Mr. Carter, who is now on leave, has asked me to provide you with the background to this matter in case it is required by the Minister.
2.
The Hong Kong Government have been attempting for many months to persuade their Trade Unions to comply with the requirements of the law regarding the validity of the election of Trade Union officials.
They have issued warnings to four Trade Unions about the election of ineligible office bearers: these
warnings have been ignored and this has resulted in the prosecution of the officials of one particular Union (the Government Waterworks Chinese Employees Union) to which Mr. Foggon refers in his minute. The convicted persons are Government Waterworks Department staff dismissed for stopping work during
the communist confrontation of 1967. There is no
hope of breaking the communist control over this
Union unless action such as this is taken. The
purpose of the prosecution is to serve as a warning
to other Unions and it appears that at least one other Union (the communist Dock Workers Union) has
taken the warning to heart, since it announced in May that candidates for forthcoming elections of
office bearers of the Union had to be workers
employed within the dockyard.
3. As regards the specific points raised in Mr. Foggon's minute:-
Paragraph 2.
I do not think that we are in a position to
question whether the persons prosecuted were correctly charged and convicted as "office bearers of the
Union.
Ca
This is a legal point on which - Court would undoubtedly need to have been satisfied.
/Paragraph 3 ...