CO537-2188 — Page 220

75A

SUMMARY OF MEMORANDUM ON TRADE UNIONISM

IN HONG KONG (ENCLOSURE TO NO. 75)

NO.75)

1. Labour Organisation in Hong Kong, as in China, was

not an organic growth arising out of a struggle for better

wages or working conditions. It was from birth caught up

with a revolutionary movement in China which determined its

development according to political exigency rather than the

needs of the workers themselves. So far as Hong Kong

was concerned, the politics which dominated the growth

of Trade Unions were Chinese politics, and the Unions so

formed were instruments in the hands of politicians completely

unconcerned with the Colony's economic and social problems.

2. Following the outbreak of war in 1939 the cost of

living in Hong Kong rose sharply, and the Unions found

themselves engaged in a genuine struggle to secure wage

increases. This was considered an unique opportunity to

foster genuine Trade Unionism, and every encouragement was

extended to the workers to organise themselves. The result

was a remarkable growth of genuine Trade Unionsim in 1940

and 1941.

3. This progress was completely smashed by the Japanese,

and on the liberation the organisations which had been coming

into prominence in 1940 and 1941 were found to be almost

completely absent. In their place were found

(a) a very strong movement by the K.M. T. To infiltrate

and gain control of any new labour organisation

(b) a counter-movement sponsored by members of the

Chinese Communist Party to establish organisations which,

while not openly Communist, were united in opposition to the

K.M. T.

Besides these two clearly defined groups there are other

Unions, and a large number of embryonic Unions, over most

of

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