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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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Reference :-
C.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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ENCLOSURE IN NO. 11.
Terms for the resumption of work by strikers in Hongkong. 1. The Chinese in Hongkong should have absolute freedom to hold meetings, form societies, make speeches and publications and go on strike, and absolute freedom in education, residence and patriotic movements and parades. (All disbanded labour guilds to be reinstated).
2. All Hongkong residents, whether of Chinese or foreign nationalities, should receive equal legal protection and treatment, and the ordinances and practice in regard to the banishment of Chinese and the flogging and private punishment, &c., should be abolished immediately.
3. The electoral arrangements of the Hongkong Legislative Council should be revised so as to increase the rights of the Chinese to elect and to be elected.
4. The Hongkong Government shall pass labour ordinances to enact an 8-hour working day, a minimum rate of wages, the right of the labour guilds to make agreements, the abolition of the contract system of employing labour, the improvement of the living conditions of woman and child labour and the compulsory enforcement of a labour insurance. In the preparation of these labour ordinances, the labour guilds should be represented.
5. The employees and workmen of all public and private organisations shall all be reinstated, and shall not be rejected or dismissed under any pretext. No administrative or economic victimisation or reprisal shall be made in the future.
6. The employees and workmen of all public and private organisations shall be given their pay for the period of the strike.
7. All those who were arrested in connection with the strike shall be instantly released and shall not be banished. Those who have been banished on account of the strike or on suspicion of complicity therein should all have their freedom restored.
8. Compensation for their loss shall be made to those whose furniture, &c., has been sold by auction by the Hongkong Govern- ment or the landlords for being unable to pay their rents during the period of the strike; they shall be allowed to reside in their original houses without the payment of rent for the period of the strike.
9. The new Rent Law published by the Hongkong Government on the 1st July shall be repealed immediately, and an actual reduc- tion of 26 per cent. should be made from the date of announce- ment of its abolition.
10. A Compensation Committee be organised of the repre- sentatives of the various associations (public bodies) in Hongkong and the Chinese Labour representatives, and the Hongkong Government should be responsible for compensating the Hong. kong Chinese workmen for their loss during the strike period.
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11. All Chinese employees in steamships, factories and com- panies shall enjoy equal opportunities. The Hongkong Govern- iment shall issue its certificates of competence without discrimina- tion between Chinese or foreign nationalities (for instance, for passenger steamships plying between ports, Chinese shall have the right of becoming captains and engineers).
12. All certificates and licences, given to the Chinese by the Hongkong Government before the strike, should continue to have
effect.
13. All factories, large companies and godowns, having over 100 men, should provide quarters for the workmen, who shall be exempt from paying rent.
14. All workmen who have not participated in the present strike movement shall be dismissed, and non-strikers shall be re-engaged only after all the striking workmen have been employed.
15. The free use of Chinese currency should be allowed within the territories of Hongkong.
Demands of the Hongkong Students' Union.
1. Hongkong Chinese students, whether in school or not, shall all have the freedom of convening meetings, forming societies, of speech, publications, beliefs, and patriotic movements and parades.
2. Hongkong Chinese students should have the right of par- ticipating in meetings in connection with school affairs and educa- tional affairs, and for improvement in these matters.
3. The Hongkong Government should make an order pro- claiming that all Chinese students who returned to their country on strike shall be free to return to their respective schools, whether public or private, and to continue their studies, and that the school shall not reject or dismiss them under any pretext.
4. All the regulations of the Education Board of the Hongkong Government concerning striking students should be forthwith rescinded in toto.
5. All school fees payable in respect of the period of the strike should be cancelled.
6. All commemoration days of the Chinese Republic shall be made holidays for the purpose of commemoration.
2nd October, 14th year of the Chinese Republic (1925).
Seal of the Canton-Hongkong Strike Committee of the General Labour Union of China.
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