163
Hong Kong lives with sister-in-law, whose husband is a seaman, at 18 ... Street, name unknown, near temple, Kowloon City; pays no rent. Was small farmer in country. Has been on present job four to five months, lives in wooden shed beside work.
Wages Thirty cents a day.
Hours: 7 a.m.-1 p.m., 2 p.m.-5.30 p.m. Feeds herself at cost about three dollars a month, goes to Kowloon twice a month for rice. Remits four to five dollars per month to mother-in-law in country.
(19) TANG HO, female, aged 32, (found turning over earth under water before rice planting between Castle Peak and Un Long).
Married as "tin fong" or second wife (first wife being dead) to farmer, Lam Tei Village, married four years, one daughter; was born near Castle Peak, New Territories. Has three step sons, all married, and two step daughters; a third step daughter is dead. Family lives together in four village houses which it owns. They own three fields, two bullocks, chickens, vegetables. Supporting themselves on rice of their own growing and sale of surplus crop. Have no pigs this year. Only purchases salt fish, fresh fish, some vegetables and pork. Wearing clothes she possessed at time of marriage. The wives of the three sons also work in the fields- they have three children. No servants. Cooking done by step daughter, aged 12. Last year two harvests. Cannot read or write. Never been ill. Two meals a day-
rice, and congee at midday.
(20) NG WAI, female, aged 34, domestic servant employed by Wong family at 6 Queen Victoria Street third floor, Hong Kong.
in
Master and mistress, no children, occupy one cubicle; is only servant and sleeps camp bed outside cubicle.
Does cooking and washing, etc. Wages-$2 per month.
Born in Canton; came to Hong Kong last year as refugee. Widow, no children.
Rises at 6 a.m., goes to bed 9-10 p.m. Feeds at employer's table; three meals a day supplied. Cannot read or write.
Summary and Recommendations.
215. It is not proposed to collate these cases 'but to allow them to speak for themselves. It is interesting, however, to note that of the twenty workers chosen at random only one, the New Territories farmer, is a native of Hong Kong. The Colony was described in an earlier paragraph as geographically but not politically a part of China. Many of the inhabitants ignore this distinction and that is the root trouble in respect of Hong Kong trade unions. As many cases show, the interests and loyalties which bind the workers to China are strong. However low the wages. and long the hours, they are, even with a higher cost of living, better off in Hong Kong than they were in China, and many are able to remit money home to China monthly. Most of them look to China as their home. When I called at Chung Hwa Factory shortly after, the strike and lockout referred to in a previous paragraph I found all parties united for the time in the despatch of a joint telegram to Chiang Kai Shek advocating the expulsion of Wang Ching Wei from the Kuomintang.
216. Admittedly, those concerned had recently come from Shanghai but the attitude of the Cantonese is much the same. War, or civil war, or disturbance of any kind in China, drives a certain number to Hong Kong. Some may return when the trouble is over, others remain at least for a time to seek a livelihood. The population at the present time is unnaturally swollen with refugees and embusqués. It is impossible to say how many of these will endeavour to make a permanent home in the Colony and how many businesses transferred from Shanghai and elsewhere will take root. That depends on the future of China, but it is impossible to build the future of the Colony on such a fluid and unstable foundation. Some of that quarter or half million are rentiers but the majority is without substance and there is not