5
Wahm
Lir. Kirkness (through lir. Sidebotham).
I understand that the Fresident of the Board of Trade, who is under strong pressure from Lancashire about the import of cheap Hong Kong shirts into this country, is to see the Secretary of State on this matter on Friday.
When articles began appearing in the Fress here about these llong Kong shirts, the Secretary of State called for a report about labour conditions in the textile industry in Hong Kong. The note which was prepared in response to this request is at (7) on the attached file. Mr. Creech Jones was not altogether satisfied and the Hong Kong Labour Department have been asked for further information (see letter at (8)).
If the Fresident of the Board of Trade shows any inclination to suggest that these Hong Kong shirts should be excluded from the U.K., I hope that the Secretary of State will offer the strongest resistance. Any such action would in my view be indefensible for the following reasons:
(1)
Aven
It is not right that import controls, whose purpose is to protect our balance of payments position, should be used to protect home industry from competition from countries, particularly Empire countries, with whom there are no balance of payments difficulties.
(2) Hong Kong imposes no restrictions on imports from the U.K. In fact, Hong Kong's imports from the U.K. are far larger than the U.K.'s imports from Hong Kong; and this is true even in the narrow field of textiles alone.
On the other hand, the Secretary of State can, I think, offer the President of the Board of Trade some help in the following respects:-
(a) There would, I think, be no objection to the Fresident of the Board of Trade letting it be known that, whilst we have no reason to believe that these Hong Kong shirts are produced with "sweateù" labour, we have made enquiries from the Hong Kong Government with a view to ascertaining the facts on this aspect of the matter more precisely, and have asked what steps, if any, the Labour Department can take to ensure that conditions in the industry are as good as possible.
(b) M. Percival of the Board of Trade has suggested that we might help Hong Kong merchants to enter the textile market in other Colonies and so divert sane of these cheap shirts from the U.K. I would certainly see no objection to our drawing the attention of other Colonial Governments to this Hong Kong product, and advising them how merchants in their territories can, if they so desire, get into touch with the Hong Kong merchants concerned.
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