Sir Murray MacLehose GBE KCMG KCVO
HONG KONG
28 September 1977
13)
THE TUC AND HONG KONG
1.
On 8 September the Trade Union Congress adopted the following motion:
2.
"Congress notes the efforts of the General Council to focus attention on the social and economic conditions in the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.
In particular, Congress welcomes the appointment of Professor Turner and associates to study labour relations and social conditions.
Congress regrets that representatives of the TUC and CBI were not included in the investigating team and calls for the publication of the Report".
The motion was moved by Mr A R Smith of the National Union of Tailors and Garment Workers. He commended the General Council of the TUC on their activities in respect of Hong Kong and pointed to the direct responsibility of HMG for Hong Kong He explained how Hong Kong differed from developing countries in Asia in that a large proportion of the Hong Kong labour force was employed in manufacturing industry and he described your diversified economy in which the USA, UK and Japanese companies have substantial interests. He referred to the dominant position of the textile industry and stated that imports of shirts from Hong Kong had almost put an end to the production of shirts in the UK. He then went on to relate how Hong Kong had moved into the production of watches, television sets, electronic equipment, polystyrene and shipbuilding which, according to him, are now posing a threat to the counterpart industries in the UK and the rest of Europe.
3. Mr Smith expressed the view that industrial expansion had not been matched by a sufficiently great increase in