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MR. FUNG, continuing, says that since his assumption of office
as Commissioner of Agriculture and Labour, he has made
a careful study of the labour problem. He is sure that
the ordinary workman has no desire to give trouble to his employer, or to the Government, or again to foreign-
ers. The trouble in the past has been that a few out-
siders were able to exercise a pernicious influence over
him. The Canton Government intend to adapt their policy
in regard to labour to prevailing conditions. The con-
ditions in China are quite different from those in other
countries: China has no big capitalists in the real
sense of the word. He thinks that the best way to deal with labour would be to make a rule forbidding anyone
joining a guild, other than one of his fellow tradesmen; and also forbidding anyone without a trade to hold office in any guild. This will prevent unscrupulous adventurers
from making use of guilds for their own selfish ends.
The Government with may also require employers to share their
profits with their employees in the shape of a bonus. A percentage of such profit has to be stipulated in accord-
ance with the different kinds of business or trade. Em-
ployees who share such profits will not be allowed to join any guilds at all. By this means the labour diffi- culties may gradually disappear.
HIS EXCELLENCY says that the labour problem is a very important
one, The trouble exists not in China alone, but all
over the world. The aim of Labour is to dominate the
other sections of the community. Hong Kong in recent years has had serious troubles with labour. First there was the General Labour Union which was established for
neither economic nor social purposes, but was a political
organisation designed to impose its will on the Govern-
ment. Such an organisation was a distinct danger to the
Colony; and the Government, on the advice of not only