OF PRIV
COUNCIL
TRADE
BOARD OF TRADE,
MILLBANK,
S. W. 1.
62
Ent
C.R.E. 3872/50
Emanuel,
Dear Mr. Emanuel
17th April, 1950.
I have been trying to obtain from the Colonial Office information on labour conditions in the rubber footwear industry in Hongkong, but I am told that you have no information in the Office.
As you know, there has always been a good deal of concern in the United Kingdom industry over competition from Hongkong and this concern is increasing, with the increasing imports of rubber footwear from the Colony. This question has not yet, I am thankful to say, reached the headlines in the same way as imports of Hongkong shirts but we must expect more trouble in the future.
The complaint is the usual one i.e. that Hongkong rubber footwear under-sells United Kingdom goods because the Hongkong industry is a sweated one.
I should be most grateful, therefore, if you could try to get some information about labour conditions in this industry in Hongkong as soon as possible. The sort of points we would like to see covered are:
(a) can we say that the industry is not sweated?
(b) are workers organised in trade unions? If
so, how?
(c) How do real wages compare with pre-war?
(d) Are wages, even though low by U.K. standards,
high by Far Eastern standards?
Yours sincerely,
In Dennely.
(Miss M.W. Dennehy)
A. Emanuel, Esq.,
Colonial Office
Sanctuary Buildings,
S.W. 1.