(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500м 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential,
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
DRAFT
LETTER
To:-
Peter Blaker, Esq.,M.P.
House of Commons
Type 1 +
From
Mr. Royle
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Thank you for your letter of 5 October about
the article in the Financial Times of/25 September
on Trade Union legislation in Hong Kong. The
Trade Union Registration (Amendment) Bill has not
yet been considered by the Labour Advisory Board nor
has it been sent to the Governor in Council. The
draft Bill is still under consideration and may well
be modified as the result of the comments and
criticisms received.
The article in the Financial Times is not
strictly accurate in stating that employees will be
forbidden to picket a person's private residence.
This will not be forbidden where an employer carries
on his business in his private residence. The
reference in the article to picketing represents
criticisms that have been made and this part of the
draft Bill is also under review. There has been no
recent evidence that the non-communist work force
in Hong Kong has adopted "camping out" tactics
referred to in the article.
The Commissioner of Labour in Hong Kong in a
press release of 30 September welcomed comments on the
Bill and stated that, in the light of these, he would
consider what changes appeared to be necessary before
making his recommendations on the final version of
These comments are now being considered
the Bill.
/and.