5.
and labour conditions with a view to obtaining their acquiescence
in being linked together ultimately into huge syndicates, which,
on striking, could paralyse essential services and reduce the
bargaining powers of the community to something little better than
humble supplication. Because of the competition of the Communist
party in this respect the Kuomintang has to ingratiate itself with
the manual labourer rather than bully him; and merely to prove its
power, it will not only take up the cause of strikers with grie-
vances, genuine or otherwise, but will actually incite strikes and
prompt workers to make demands which it would not have occurred to
them to put forward of their own motion. The powerful union known
as the Chinese Seamen's Union, with headquarters in Shanghai, is
sponsored by the Central Kuomintang headquarters and aims at
establishing branches in all overseas ports frequented by Chinese
seamen. It is a powerful weapon to use against foreign shipping
companies, whose vessels are manned by Chinese seamen, and if its
ambitious plans to bring under its control all Chinese seamen,
whether ocean-going or locally employed, succeed, it could easily,
by promoting a general seamen's strike, completely paralyse the
working of a port like Hong Kong and all the economic life of the
Colony which depends on the trade handled by the port. This Union,
in close touch with the office of the Chinese Commissioner for
Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong, has been pressing urgently for
recognition by the Hong Kong Government and for consent to its
functioning here as a branch of a union which has its headquarters
situated outside the Colony. Even the Hong Kong Chinese Chamber of
Commerce, a purely commercial and industrial organisation, has
shown signs of willingness to curry favour with the Kuomintang.
14.
The Party officials tend to assume responsibility for the
organisation of Chinese national celebrations in Hong Kong on such
occasions as the Double Tenth, the anniversary of the foundation
of the Republic. The programme of meetings and processions put
forward for the Double Tenth, 1946, had a very pronounced Kuomin-