need guidance. Alternatively it might be possible to have a Legal Officer as Registrar (in addition to other duties) with an Administrative Officer full time as Deputy Registrar. In either case it will be absolutely essential that the Registrar should have an adequate and competent staff, including at least two Assistant Registrars who will be engaged mainly in inspection duties.
Para. 21. Advisory Committee for Registrar.
I see no reason for the appointment of an Advisory Committee.
Para, 22.
"General" Unions.
The Hong Kong Trade Union and Trade Disputes Ordinance does not contain provision for the Registrar to refuse registration to a "general" und on.
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The general labour union has always been a very prominent feature in the Chinese organisation of labour particularly from the early 1920's onwards when Chinese politicians recognised the enormous importance of organised labour as a political weapon. The form tion of such general unions has always been from the top downwards, and they have never shown the slightest interest in improving the conditions of work and living of their members, nor have they made any attempt to carry out any of the functions which we normally associate with a trade union. Their object has been to control large masses of labour to a political end, and for this purpose they have aimed primarily at
This was capturing the leadership of individual unions. very often achieved through the use of Secret Societies, the members of which entered a union and gradually worked their way to power. The general unions did not completely obliterate the individual unions which continued to function in domestic affairs on the lines of guilds, but the leaders of these guilds belonged to the general union and through their Secret Society organisations ensured that the rank and file of the individual union would at need obey the dictates of the general union.
This pattern was very prominent in Hong Kong in the early '20's, and was responsible for the organisa- tion and implementation of the great general strike of 1925. That strike, which was purely political and anti- foreign, was the direct result of the domination of most of the unions in Hong Kong by general labour unions
Since the war there have been controlled from Canton. two or three attempts to revive the idea of a general labour union, but they have not come to anything. Partially this has been due to the very strong political
The unions in Hong Kong cleavage in Chinese politics.