11
3
which had been in operation since 1930 without change became inadequate almost
overnight and by the Spring of 1940 the workers in this Colony were actively
engaged in a struggle to secure wage increases to meet the sharply rising cost of
living. The Labour Office was inundated with requests from workers for assistance
in this struggle and it was soon realised that we were being presented with an
unique opportunity to revive Hong Kong trade unionism on healthy economic and non-
political lines. Every encouragement was extended to the workers to organise
themselves, either by the formation of new unions or, where such existed, by the
revival of their former associations. Employers were also pressed to form associa-
tions for the purpose of collective bargaining, Unfortunately, all records have
Advantage was taken of the
been destroyed during the Japanese occupation, but it is in my personal recollec-
tion that during the years 1940 and 1941 there was a remarkable growth of genuine
trade unionism in this Colony and that the unions showed great capacity for reason-
able negotiation. During those two years many trade disputes were amicably
settled by joint negotiation of representative bodies.
opportunity to include in every agreement clauses which provided for the establish-
ment of permanent negotiation machinery within the trades concerned and by the end
of 1941 I felt in a position to report with some confidence that there appeared to
be every prospect of slowly building up a trade union movement within the Colony
which would be independent of Chinese politics and which would develop into a
genuine guardian of the workers' interests in Hong Kong.
Unfortunately, all this work was completely smashed by the Japanese
invasion and occupation of Hong Kong. The Japanese had no use whatsoever for any
form of trade unionism although they did make use of some of the Triad societies
for purposes of internal espionage and gestapo activities.
economic life of the Colony was so completely disrupted that in any event there
would have been little room for the functioning of trade unions.
Moreover, the whole
Communist
In China the years from 1942 to 1945 witnessed a progressively increasing
breach in the united front which had been set up against Japan.
influences were strongest in the North West and in the coastal districts where
bands of guerillas were organised in the struggle against the Japanese, these two areas were the provinces of China under the control of the Nationalist
It is interesting Government which was in fact entirely dominated by the KMT.
Between
to note that as early as 1943 the Nationalist Government was openly accused of
Page 235Page 236