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compensation. Legislation for workmen's compensation is at present under con- sideration. In this connexion it is strongly urged that the precedent of the Straits Settlements and Ceylon should be followed rather than that of the East and West Africa Model Ordinance in that conditions in the Colony require that the Ordinance should be administered by an executive officer instead of the injured workman or his dependants left to pursue their rights by the slow and costly process of litigation. A scheme of workmen's compensation however easy to administer in respect of the better conducted industrial undertakings presents many difficulties in respect of small under-capitalized factories.
228. As was pointed out in the chapter on social legislation in Hong Kong, the present so-called Inspectorate of Labour, Factories and Workshops originated as an Inspectorate of Juvenile Labour and consisted originally of one male and one female inspector. The activities of the Inspectorate of two officers are now practically confined to the registered factories and workshops which number nearly nine hundred. It is submitted that this Inspectorate should form the nucleus of a Labour Inspectorate whose sphere would be the conditions of labour generally in the Colony. It is suggested that the Chinese Mines Inspector whose appointment is recommended by Mr. Kershaw should be incorporated in this Inspectorate. would appear desirable to employ Chinese female inspectors of labour as in the supervision of "mui-tsai" where Chinese lady inspectors have proved eminently successful in investigating the status of what is after all merely a section of female workers. No one knows the conditions of outworkers in this Colony as no one has investigated. The Labour Inspectorate should take the conditions of all labour in the Colony as its province.
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229. In the matter of legislation generally it is understood that the Peace Preservation Ordinance, the regulations made under the Emergency Regulations. Ordinance, and certain other restrictive legislation are to be scrutinized with a view to incorporating in the general legislation of the Colony any provisions deemed necessary and employing thereafter the Emergency Regulations Ordinance only to make regulations necessary in an emergency which should be repealed when the state of emergency is over. There is at present in service a battery of heavy legal artillery, mostly obsolete. Even the Employers and Servants Ordinance requires. scrutiny as to its adequacy in existing circumstances.
230. Great advances in respect of the betterment of working conditions in the Colony have been made in the last fifteen years. The regulation of the age of admission of children to industrial employment has eliminated most of the evils of the apprentice system, and it is submitted that the proper organization of trade unions will eliminate the evils of the contract system and give workers a sense of security, the absence of which is one of their main grievances. I have, under the direction of the Honourable Attorney General, drafted a Trade Union Bill, based on the law of England, to define the status and powers of trade unions and to provide for their registration. The Bill is intended to bring the position of trade unions in Hong Kong into alignment with that of English trade unions. Registration is not made compulsory, but a union applying for registration must satisfy the Registrar (the Labour Officer) that its objects and constitution are similar to those of registered trade unions in England.
231. Clause 28 of the Bill repeals section 37 of the Offences against the Person Ordinance No. 2 of 1865 quoted in paragraph 102 above, makes a consequential amendment in the second schedule to the Peace Preservation Ordinance No. 10 of 1886 by the deletion of the figures 37 in the third line thereof, and repeals the Boycott Prevention Ordinance No. 41 of 1912.
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232. One result of the abolition of the registration of societies which followed the passing of the Societies Ordinance in 1920 was that genuine trade unions of workmen lost the status afforded by official recognition or exemption and became merely not unlawful societies. It is hoped that voluntary registration will give genuine trade unions a certain amount of face and inculcate a certain degree of responsibility. One of the greatest needs is the development and encourage- ment of honest and competent leaders whose aim is the improvement of the working and living conditions of the workers rather than participation in Chinese politics and their own aggrandizement. They should be responsible representatives of the workers capable of negotiating on their behalf.