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union membership was 290,020. Of these 77,932 were members of the Kuomintang. These figures may be contrasted with those of a survey made in 1937 when in 43 Chinese cities 1,051 unions were found with a total membership of 912,399.
The first modern strike occurred in 1913. In 1919, China after signing the Treaty of Saint-Germain became a member of the International Labour Organization. In 1920, Labour Day was first observed in Peking anu Canton and the same year the Chinese Communist party was organised in Shanghai. The unions which had developed out of societies like th Triad rather than the craft guilās, took on more and more a leftish complexion and became frankly revolutionary, nationalistic, end anti- foreign. After the split between the Kuomintang and the Commun- ist party in Shanghai the unions lost their newly acquired political power and were generally regimented under the
Kuomintang to which they became entirely subordinate.
The Kuomintang established a nationalist government
in Nanking in 1927. The dictatorship of the unions was ended rnd the Communist party driven into opposition and civil war, only terminated with the present united front against Japan. It
should be noted in passing that the leaders of the unions were
politicians and frequently carterists who were not members of
the particular trade which they professcu. to represent and that
there was a lack of qualified leaders from the ranks of labour
itself. As a result social amelioration was subordinated to
revolutionary nationalism, and frequently, the funds. of the unions were diverted into the pockets of the agitators in control.
Once in power the Nationalist. Government established
a Labour Bureau which was soon incorporated in the ministry of Commerce, Industry and Labour, later known as the Ministry of Industries. The Labour Division comprised three departments for Labour Administration, Labour Protection and Labour Welfare.
Provisional regulations for the settlement of disputes between employers and employees were promulgated in 1928 and later revised and promulgated as a national low. A Labour Union Law developed from the regulations concerning the organization of labour unions was promulgated in 1929, and regulations were passed regarding the organization of special trade unions such as seamen, miners, postal workers, railway workers and telegr: ph
workers.
In 1929, a factory law of seventy-seven articles was passed and became effective from 1st August 1931. The law prohibited the employment of children under fourteen years of
and age, with certain concessions to existing circumstances,