CO537-1658 — Page 28

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-