Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
32
From The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State
14
19 October, 1970.
As Anthony Royle will not be back from the Far East until 22 October I am replying to your letter of 5 October about the "Financial Times" article on Trade Union legislation in Hong Kong.
The report did not give an accurate account of the position. To begin with, it gave the impression that the Bill would be enacted as it stood. The facts of the matter are that the draft legislation was issued in August by the Commissioner of Labour for general comment. In particular, the text of the Bill, with an explanatory Memorandum, was sent to members of the Labour Advisory Board on 12 August, and the Board will not be meeting until 15 October to discuss the matter. In a press release issued on 29 September the Commissioner of Labour welcomed comments on the Bill and stated that, in the light of these, he would consider what changes would appear to be necessary before making his recommendations on the final version of the Bill. The draft legislation is therefore still under consideration and it may well be amended as a result of the comments and criticisms received.
On points of detail, the article in the "Financial Times" was wrong in stating that employees will be forbidden to picket a person's private residence. This is not the intention where a person carries on his business in the place where he lives. Moreover, we have been informed by the Governor that there have been no instances recently of non-communist unions adopting the "camping out" tactics referred to in the article.
Peter Blaker, Esq., M.P.,
House of Commons,
London, S.W.l.
(LOTHIAN)