8507 D.073939 200M. 11/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
SECRET
-
was not really a starter but he felt that further information was needed on the labour relations and trade union situation in Hong Kong from some well- qualified source. There did not, in his view, seem at present to be a body of informed knowledge on this subject in this country and he felt that the advice tendered to you by the Labour Advisory Board did not, on the evidence, adequately cover the spectrum of employer and employee opinion in the Colony witness the public reaction to the recent Labour Relations Bill. He recognised the difficulty of making the Board properly representative, given the total non-cooperation of the communist trade unions representing nearly 85% of trades unionists in the two main Associations and thus was attracted to the idea of a low profile study to be undertaken by someone of the calibre of Dr W R McCarthy, at present Chairman of the Railway Arbitration Tribunal. Dr McCarthy undertook a major part of the research undertaken by the Donovan Commission and is generally thought of here as someone who can be relied upon to approach the Hong Kong situation in an objective and practical way. We pointed out the delicacy of the situation and the need to work out modalities with you very carefully. I shall write to you further when this idea has been developed a little further: the answer may well be to commission Dr McCarthy to undertake an academic research project involving a number of visits to Hong Kong over a couple of years with funds from the ODM programme for social and
economic research.
6. Speaking more generally, Mr Callaghan wondered whether the Labour Advisory Board could be developed into a body with wider terms of reference to give advice on economic and social matters besides the narrower field of industrial and labour relations. He speculated on the possibility of a quadripartite organisation consisting of the Government, the employers, the communist and the non-communist trade unions. On being reminded of the non-cooperation of
SECRET
/the