20
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
foreign. This, he thinks, would not be regarded as a hardship by the native community, but, that on the contrary, the Sunday rest would soon come to be appreciated by them as much as it is by foreigners. The Chamber of Commerce had already on two separate occasions expressed its sympathy with the principle of Sunday rest, but had also expressed the opinion that the peculiar conditions under which trade is conducted here render the suppression of labour on that day almost impossible. The sympathies of the members no doubt remain the same, and if in compliance with the request of the Association they address the Government again on the subject, it will no doubt be to the effect that so far as the shipping represented by the Chamber is concerned there is no objection to a law by which Sunday rest shall be secured, provided it is made applicable to all craft alike. It will then remain for the Government to ascertain what view the Chinese take of the matter, and in order to arrive at this the crews as well as the owners of the juuks should be consulted. As most of the inen are paid by the mouth, they would bo distinct gainers by the proposed law, for it is not likely their wages would be reduced to make up for the loss of the four day's work. The owners on the other band would most probably take an unfavourable view of the proposal, but it is at all events desirable that this point should be definitely determined. If all parties can be brought into line the Government may see its way to draft such a law as is asked for, though the idea of enforcing the observance of Sunday by penal provisions is somewhat antagonistic to the spirit of the times. When an old woman is brought before the Magistrates in England charged with selling apples on Sunday, as still sometimes happens, there is generally a certain amount of indignation expressed, and the injustice would be still greater in the case of a coolie trying to earn an honest living, and who has never been taught to entertain any special regard for the day.
The stoppage of work in the harbour on Sunday would entail, to a considerable extent, a cessation of labour on shore. The godown and cargo coolies, who are paid by the day and not by the month, would be thrown out of work, and other trades would also be affected. It is true the same classes have to some extent to acquiesce in a stoppage of work on Sunday at the Treaty ports, but there is this difference, that while at the Treaty ports it is only work in connection with foreign shipping that is affected, in this Colony the native shipping would be affected also. If it is decided that legislative action should be taken, the best form in which to cast the new law would, no doubt, be to require any vessel working on Sunday to take out a permit, for which there should be charged a substantial fee. This would discourage Sunday labour, but would at the same time afford an opportunity of loading or discharging in cases of real necessity. It is difficult, however, to find any logical justification for the proposed law, unless we assume a right to impose our religious observances on the Chinese. In order to afford a day's rest to a few hundred Europeans at the outside some twenty or twenty-five thousand natives would be thrown out of work, and to a considerable proportion of the latter it would mean the loss of a day's pay. If the Government says: "Sunday must be observed," it will be at once confronted with the question, why should it be observed in the harbour and not on shore? But it is admitted that a universal Sunday observance law would not work, and if a universal law would not work is it to be supposed that a law applied only to one-eighth of the population would work? The experiment, we fear, would prove a somewhat hazardous one, and it is to be regretted that the matter, as it affects foreign shipping, could not be settled between the Chamber of Commerce and the Mercantile Marine Officers' Association without invoking the aid of the legislature. From the remarks made by the Chairman of the Chamber it may be gathered that there would be no difficulty in arriving at a satisfactory settlement, so far as the regular coasting steamers are concerned, and work is generally stopped on board sailing vessels on Sunday under existing conditions, so that there are only left to be considered the crews of the few home steamers that may happen to be in port on Sunday. To make twenty-five thousand men stop work in order that these few may enjoy a day's rest, seems, it must be confessed, a somewhat extreme measure.
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
THE SUNDAY LABOUR QUESTION.-A REPLY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS."
21
As Britons
DEAR SIR-May I be permitted to say that your article on the Sunday labour question deals with the matter in a somewhat nudecided manner? The Association in its request to the Chamber are not seeking a complete cessation of labour on shore as well as on board ship. As far as the European portion of the community is concerned, there is already no Sunday work on shore, and why should European officers in the Port-itself a British Colony-why should they, simply because they are in the minority, be compelled to adopt a Chinese custom in the non-observance of Sunday, and, as a matter of course, be deprived of a day's necessary rest--a hardship endured in no other part in the world? surely they claim prior consideration in a so-called British Colony; and in a country like China, flooded as it is with missionaries of all denominations, surely it must appear in the eyes of the natives a great And inconsistency on our part, to put it mildly, to utterly ignore the Sabbath-as is the enstom here. if to better this disgraceful state of affairs, it would be necessary to interfere with the working of native craft, why should they not be affected? When a foreign vessel is in a Chinese port, she has to conform to Chinese customs, and let them accommodate themselves to ours in the port of Hongkong. When in their own ports they have to pay for Sunday working, and as a consequence, almost without exception, refrain from it. My experience shows that the Chinese are well able to take care of themselves. and assuming that some portion of them are deprived of four days pay in the month, they have the remedy in their own bands.
With regard to your statement that 25,000 Chinese would be turned out of employment if British Officers secured a day's rest on Sunday, this is simply an illusion, almost equally as much so as the remark made by Mr. Keswick to the effect that it would be a most serions undertaking to throw 15,000 unemployed Chinese on the Colony for a whole day. At the very most, and I am speaking from facts gleaned from the Chinese themselves, there would be only 10,000 idle, and if that number of men are going to terrorize Hongkong the sooner Europeans pack up and "get "the better.
Let a heavy fee for Sunday work on board ship be enforced in Hongkong on all nationalities alike, and we should soon see how much Sunday labour is necessary to carry on the trade of the port.
We don't wish to handicap owners in any way: Their interests are identical with our own, but we are not so many steam engines to be driven incessantly so long as we are supplied with a certain amount of fnel. Rest is most necessary to us, and we intend to have it some way or other.
HONGKONG, 22ND OCTOBER, 1890.
HOME TRADER.
THE SUNDAY LABOUR QUESTION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY PRESS."
DEAR SIE,--Permit me to correct an evident slip of the pen which occurred in "Home Trader's" excellent letter on this important question (the Sunday Rest Question) in your columns to-day. Your correspondent says the Hon. J. J. Keswick stated it would be dangerous to have fifteen thousand Chinese coolies idle on Sunday, e.g., four days in a month, whereas the words on this subject uttered by Mr. Keswick (as reported in your issue of the 18th instant) ran as follows:-" Do you not think the Government should weigh carefully the effect of throwing apon the Colony say 150,000 workmen who have nothing to do one day in each seven? Do you not think it a serious responsibility ?" 150,000 Chinese not 15,000 that Mr. Keswick would like the general public to believe would be thrown out of work owing to the granting of Sunday rest to British captains and officers in this so-called Christian port, this God-be-praised oasis in a vast heathen deserti (N.B.-The road to Heaven lays through Hongkong!).
It was
Congratulating "Home Trader" on his manly, outspoken exposition of the true state of affairs, and hoping his example will be followed by others, who won't mind risking "a cold dinner on Sunday or the "boycott" of shipowners, so long as it remains in their power to crush out the spirit of independence, and the innate tendency of John Bull to claim liberty of thought and speech as his right.
Yours faithfully.
A BRITISH SAILOR.
Hongkong, 23rd October, 1890.
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