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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

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