SOUTH CHINA MORNING
ENCLOSURE NO. la.
(ONE)
11,
1927.
POST. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY
BATTLE IMMINENT IN CANTON.
CLASH BETWEEN LABOURITES AND MERCHANTS FEARED.
THOUSANDS IN PROCESSION.
With 15,000 merchants in one procession and 20,000 labourites in another, both occupying the same streets, and each bent on a different mission, the one to defend an age- cld custom and the other abolish it, there were all the elements present in Canton yesterday for a tremendous and bloody clash between Capital and Labour.
Fortunately the merchants refused to be forced into a street altercation and the latest information from Canton is to the effect that, so far no hostile act has been committed although the will is there on the part of the Labour Unions, and the pacific merchants may, by this time, have been forced to retaliate in self-defense.
New Year Dismissals.
(Our Own Correspondent.)
Canton, Feb. 9. For the first time in an age, the Canton merchants are going to act unitedly in fighting for their rights, and to-morrow will attend a meeting at the General Chamber of Commerce, on the conclusion of which they will march in a body to Government headquarters to lay their complaint before the proper officials, and ask that their con- dition be ameliorated.
The major demand will be for the right to discharge any em- ployee on the day following the Chinese New Year, a right which
accrued to the merchants as an ancient custom, but which is being taken away from them by the Unions.
The Union point of view is that no matter what the condition of business, an employer may not let out an employee unless, of course, he gives up business entirely. Even in such an event, in some cases the workmen have demanded that they be paid a considerable sum of money that they might have something to live on while seeking other employment.
Business will be almost paralyz- ed by the realization of the desire of the workmen, the merchants. feel, and they are now prepared to go to the limit fighting for or- dinary justice. They will first
give a chance to the Government to change its mind. Should the Government remain obdurate, the merchants may try their hand at striking, and close the doors of their shops until such time as the right demanded is conceded them.
Government Decision.
It was on the 28th of December that the Provincial Government gave its answer to the labourers, an answer by no means acceptable to either employer or employee. Where the former had already agreements with their workers which purported to settle the ques- tion of how employees might be dismissed, the terms of the agree- ment must be held to be binding, but workers might be discharged even without the assignment of
reason any particular
therefor on the 2nd day of the New Year if such an agreement had not been already entered into.
The Labourers' Delegates' Union held a meeting to consider this question on the 7th of January, and the following day put out a notice reviewing the whole affair, and protesting against the Govern- ment's decision. This organiza- tion has been much more emphatic than has the Kwangtung General Labour Union in its insistence that the Government recede from its position and many shops of various kinds in Canton have been closed because the owners cut down their force at the commencement of the year.
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