~3-
70
of the child labour. In 1976 a Granada Television team investigated
child labour for the "World in Action" series and found and filmed
children at work in factories, some working unprotected with hot solder. In November 1978, an investigative journalist for the Hong Kong Standard (an English language daily) found and photographed
children working in factories at Aplichau Island. (6) The HKCIC
survey we have quoted concluded that ..child labour is a comman
phenomenon in Hong Kong". (7) The standard work on labour
relations in the Colony, Chinese Labour under British rule by
Prof. J. Rear and Joe England, 1975, a cautious and academic
study, concluded that "... the extent of illegal child labour is
considerably greater than the Hong Kong Government is prepared to admit...(and that) the extent of legal child labour is intolerably high." (8) The exact present level of child labour
is hard to determine, although at the time of writing, an
independent sample-survey with a large sample and a detailed
questionnaire is being carried out and the results are expected
to be published before June 1979. A most unfortunate omission
of data pertaining to the paid employment of under 14 yr. olds in the tables of the 1976 By-Census precludes any estimate being made from that data. It is thus impossible to draw a comparison
with the situation revealed by data which appeared in the tables
of the 1971 full census. No estimate will be possible for the
1981 full census either unless this data is gathered and
published. The explanation offered in Parliament as to the omission
is disappointing.
When asked why the crucial information on paid employment for children under the age of 14 years was deleted from the 1976
By-Census, the British Governments reply was as follows:
"This
information was omitted as an indirect result of the Hong Kong
Government's decision to adopt in the 1976 By-Census the normal
international practice of defining the economically active
population to exclude children under 14". (24) This is a
remarkable decision, all the more so in the light of the fact
that in the course of the controversy surrounding the first