97261/17/50.
C. R. E. 17791/49.
W
Z6
COLONIAL OFFICE,
Sanctuary Buildings,
Great Smith Street,
London, S.#. 1.
31 August, 1950.
Dear Miss Dennehy,
Please refer to your two letters of the 2nd August reference C. R. L. 17791/49 to Morris, one about the imports of shirts from Hong Kong into the United Kingdom and the other about conditions of labour in the Hong Kong textile industry.
As regards the rise in imports into the United Kingdom we do of course appreciate the Board of Trade's concern, though you would not expect us to go the whole way with the Board of Trade, since, after all, the trade is a perfectly legitimate one. Nevertheless we would be prepared to put any constructive suggestion to the Governor of Hong Kong which might result in benefit not only to this country but to the industry itself, and I am glad to see that it is along these lines that you are thinking.
To be honest, however, we are a little doubtful whether there is much prospect of getting Hong Kong shirts into the United States or Canada, since our impression is that qualitatively they are not very good and that if allowance is made for this factor they are indeed not cheap. In fact our information is that some of the United Kingdom importers are already having difficulty in disposing of their stocks and if this is true it may well be that your problem may tend to solve itself without much further action. None the less if the Board of Trade think that there is a real possibility of getting these shirts into dollar markets this matter would be worth pursuing further.
we do not, however, think that we should get very far by
MISS MÄN. DENNEHY,
BOARD OF TRADE.
/merely