case and he is regarded as being guilty, under the Merchant Shipping Ordinance, of a breach of labour discipline it is likely that Clause 2 could be regarded as being contrary to the requirements of Article 1 of Convention 105. This difficulty could be overcome in the same manner as the Hong Kong Government has already adopted to avoid a breach of Article 1 of Convention 105 in regard to offences committed against other labour laws. The method adopted is that a provision has been inserted in prison rules to ensure that any person imprisoned on any of the grounds listed in that Article shall not be required to do compulsory work while in prison.
Article 1 of Convention 105 reads as follows:
Each Member of the International Labour Organisat tion which ratifies this Convention undertakes to suppress and not to make use of any form of forced or compulsory labour -
(a) as a means of political coercion or education or
as a punishment for holding or expressing poli- tical views or views ideologically opposed to the established political, social or economic system;
(b)
(၁)
(a)
(e)
as a method of mobilising and using labour for purposes of economic development;
as a means of labour discipline;
as a punishment for having participated in strikes;
as a means of racial, social, national or religious discrimination.
With regard to Article 1(d) I note that the Executive Council Memorandum of 5 December 1972 refers in para- graph 3 to attempts by Hong Kong Seamen to coerce the master of the ship into accepting demands by striking en masse. If this is taken to mean that the master could retaliate in such circumstances by discharging the strikers en masse and then calling the provisions of Clause 2 into effect it is possible that this could lead to a breach of Article 1(d) of Convention 105 and possibly of another Convention No 87. concern- ing Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise which has also been substantially applied
to Sonvention 87. Hong Kong.
If it is not convenient to delay action pending further consideration of the points listed above in consultation with Labour and Legal Advisers it might suffice to reply to Hong Kong tothe effect that provided the Government is satis- fied that amendment of the Merchant Shipping Ordinance as proposed in the draft Bill will not lead to any breach of /undertakings
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