297
(3) Sub-clause (3) of clause 1 of the English bill is unnecessary here because the provisions there overridden do not exist in Hong Kong.
4. Section 4, which is designed to protect persons refus- ing to take part in illegal strikes, from expulsion from their union or fine or loss of benefits, is taken almost word for word from clause 2 of the English bill, with the omission of the retrospective sub-clause (3).
5. Sub-section (1) of section 5 is based on section 7 of the Conspiracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, 38 & 39 Vict. c. 86, and sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 5 are based on clause 5 of the English bill. The section as a whole is designed to prevent intimidation.
11
6. Sub-section (1) of section 6 is based on clause 6 (2) of the English bill, the Government of Hong Kong taking the place of the "local or other public authority of the English clause. Sub-section (2) of section 6, which is aimed at strikes in essential services which are commenced without due warning, is based on section 4 of the Cons- piracy and Protection of Property Act, 1875, but it extends the principle of that section to electricity, to tele- phone and sanitary services, and to the means of transport by railway, ferry, tram and bus. The English section is confined to gas and water. Sub-section (3) of section 6 is copied from section 5 of the above English Act.
7.-(1) Section 7 is intended to free Hong Kong trade unions from the risk of domination by organizations out- side the Colony. Past experience shows that there is a grave danger that such domination, if it were allowed to exist, might in some cases be used, not for any genuine trade union purpose, but for bolshevistic and auti-British objects.
(2) Sub-section (1) accordingly provides that, except under and in accordance with the permission of the Governor in Council, no trade union which is established within the Colony shall be affiliated or connected with any trade union or other organizatiou outside the Colony in such a manner as to place the Hong Kong trade union or its members under the control of the organization which is established outside the Colony. Any Hong Kong trade union so affiliated without permission will, under sub-sec- tion (2) be an unlawful society, or it may, under sub-sec- tion (3), be declared an unlawful society.
(3) In order to facilitate proof, and to avoid doubts as to what establishment within the Colony means, sub-sec- tion (4) specifies certain facts, g.g., the exhibition of a sigu board, from which it is to be inferred that a trade union is established within the Colony.
(4) Sub-section (5) provides that no person shall on behalf of any trade union outside the Colony give any direction or notice to any person with regard to any action by such person within the Colony, and sub-section (6) makes possession of any such direction or notice in writing an offence unless lawful authority or excuse can be estab- lished.
(5) Sub-section (7) throws on the defendant the onus of proving that any organization in question was not a trade union, or that any organization in question was not a trade union established outside the Colony.
8. Section 8 prohibits the application of the funds of any trade union to any political purpose outside the Colony, and prohibits any levy for such a purpose.
9. Section 9 is copied from clause 8 of the English Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Bill. It gives the Attorney General the right to apply for an injunction to restrain any application of the funds of a trade union in contravention of the Ordinance.
10. Section 10 is the general penalty section.
J. H. KEMP,
Attorney Generul.
20th June, 1927.
Note.-The Chinese version of the above Bill will be published in a special supplement to the Gazette on Saturday, 25th June.