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No. 3187.
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
COLONIAL SECRETARY'S OFFICE,
Hongkong, 15th November, 1890.
Sin-In reply to your letter of the 15th instant, I have the honour by direction of the Officer Administering the Government to inform you that His Excellency will be happy to receive she deputation mentioned therein at Government House on Tuesday the 18th at noon, if convenient to then.
CHESSEY DUNCAN, Esq.,
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your most obedient Servant,
W. M. DEANE,
Acting Colonial Secretary.
Hon. Streetary:
BRITISH MERCANTILE MARINE OFFICERS' ASSOCIATION.
Reply to His Excellency the Governor,
Hangbony, 17th November, 1890,
Sta, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 15th inst. conveying to this body the gratifying news that His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government of the Colony will be pleased to receive a depatation-which is necessarily small owing to many of our members being absent from this Association at fiorernment House to-morrow, at noon.
Permit me to tender to you most sincere apologies for the delay (as it may appear to you) in answering your kind letter, which is owing to the fact that through some carelessness on our part your kind letter did not come into our Secretary's hands nutil this afternoon.
I must also express my regrets blut, inadvertently, we took a wrong course in addressing the Chief of Police in respect to the alleged danger from the Chinese community were labour stopped on board ships in this ports on the Sabbath.
Hon. W. M. DEANE,
NG,
Acting Colonial Sheretary, Hongkong.
I have the honour to be, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
(Signed)
SAML ASHTON, President.
P.S.-May I ask if it is intended that the "Press" will be admitted to the audience, or would His
Excellency prefer it to be private?
(Signed)
SAM'L ASHTON, President.
N.B.-Reply received graciously granting admission to Press.
THE SUNDAY LABOUR QUESTION.
Deputation to II.E. the Acting Governor.
A deputation from the British Mercantile Marine Officers' Association waited yesterday (the 18th November, 1890) on H. E. The Officer Administering the Governor, with reference to the question of probibiting Sunday labour in the harbour. The deputation consisted of Captain Samuel Asliton, A.I.N.A. (President), Messrs. L. James, T. W. Gale, W. Winch, J. W. Pearce, and Chesney Duncan (Secretary).
SUNDAY LABOR IN HONGKONG HARBOUR.
29
Captain ASHTON-Your Excellency, we come before you as a deputation from the Mercantile Marine Officers' Association to ask you if you can pass a law to do away with what we consider a great hardship-with the unnecessary labour on board ships in this harbour on Sundays, that is to say, the loading and discharging of cargo. I think, your Excellency, we may say that some movement in this direction has been made before, of which I have no doubt you are fully aware. The first movement in this matter was originated by the Rev. Mr Goldsmith, who got up a petition which was signed by the majority of the Mercantile Marino Officers and also by a number of persons on shore. I think it contained 600 signatures. This petition was presented to our Governor, Sir William Des Voeux, and we have reason to believe that he put it very prominently forward when at Home, and we believe the matter was very fully considered by Lord Kuntsford, our Governor and Sir Cecil C. Smith. They came to the conclusion that legislative action was not advisable unless it was recommended by the Chamber of Commerce. We, Sir, as an Association and as a body of British Mercantile Officers wish to When we come to better our condition, that is to do away with Sunday work. Hongkong, we find that we are obliged to work on Sundays, morally obliged to do it. Our owners expect it from us. Instead of being able to go on shore on Sundays as we can do in uine-tenths of the ports of the world, we find on coming to Hongkong that we are debarred. The Governor having expressed au opinion to the effect that the stoppage of what we consider unnecessary work could only be done through the Chamber of Commerce, we asked for a conference with the I need not Chamber, which was graciously granted, and we there stated our case. read the report of the proceedings, as I suppose your Excellency has seen it. We then received a reply from the Chamber of Commerce which we consider impracticable in the highest degree. In the first place they say to us --The Coinmittee are of opinion that the Government could not legislate for the complete suppression of Sunday labour in this Harbour, as the questions involved are very serious and would affect injuriously all the shipping interests of the Colony, and partienlarly the large Chinese population connected therewith.' We do not believe We believe that and we cannot believe what the Chamber of Cominerec tells us.
Then
as loyal British subjects, the Government of this Colony, your Excellency, in the name of Her Majesty the Queen, can legislate for us. That is our answer. they say that the suppression of Sunday labour will seriously affect the shipping interests. Undoubtedly so; but although the shipping interests of this Colony are very large, they bear no comparison to the shipping interests of other ports in Her We Majesty's dominions, such as Loudon, Glasgow, Liverpool or many others. find in other parts of Her Majesty's dominions that Sunday is respected and that we have an opportunity of attending to our religious duties and also of taking recreation which we think is necessary to the well-being of every person, and more especially do we think it necessary to a body of seamen who are necessarily confined on board their ships for a number of days or weeks as the case may be. When they arrive in port, it is to them a great relief to be able to go on shore and be able to put their feet on laud. We are not afraid of our work on board ship, but we like to go on shore when we happen to be in port on Sundays. Many of our body are deeply religious. According to the custom in this porta custom that ought to be done away with--we are prevented from attending to our religious duties. We cannot rebel against this, because we might be turned out of our ships. Clearly we are kept, as a body of officers, in a sort of moral slavery. We consider as British subjects that our first duty is to our Queen and country, to our flag. I trust your Excellency will be able to convey to Her Most Gracious Majesty the assurance that she does not possess anywhere more loyal subjects than in her mercantile marine. We are willing to do our duty by our flag, and we are resolved also to do our duty Our first duty is to our flag and our to our employers and also to ourselves. country; our second is loyalty to our employers, and our third duty is loyalty to ourselves as men. We think it is an injustice that we should be deprived here of the religious privileges enjoyed in every other part of Her Majesty's dominions. We do not think it should exist much longer, and we come before you now to ask you, Sir, to do your best to pass some law, some prohibitive law to do away with this Sunday work, which necessarily entails moral slavery ou every mercantile marine officer that is in your port on Sundays. In the reply we received from the Chamber of Commerce it is further stated that the Commnittec look upon the question as one that rests solely between employers and employed. But they are pleased to state that during the discussion which ensued at the meeting a strong opinion was evinced that all European supervision for the loading and discharging
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