CO129-489 - Governor Sir Stubbs & Sir Clementi - 1925 [8-12] — Page 299

No 393.

R

c.o.

51530

10 25

298

GOVERNMENT HOUSE.

HONGKONG 16th October, 1925.

sir,

I have the honour to submit the draft of a

new Ordinance for the control of Societies.

In a considerable time previous to the onset of the present crisis it was becoming increasingly clear that the more truculent of the so-called "Labour Unions" in this Colony were merely political machines operated by the extreme section of the Kuomintang under the control and direction of the agents of the Soviet Government. There was a steady movement, fostered by Canton, for the affiliation or amalgamation of local Unions with similar organisation throughout the province of Kwangtung and as the crisis approached the leaders of these Unions advocated more and more openly the establishment of proletariat rule in that province and the destinction of this "Capitalist" Colony. Many of these leaders are at this moment taking prominent parts in the maintenance of the anti-British boycott and strike in Canton and elsewhere.

2.

The present Ordinance has of course been drafted on the assumption that this storm of bolshevism will be safely weathered by China as well as by Hongkong and

is designed to restrict Labour Unions in the Colony to their legitimate sphere. It reverts to the principle of

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

LIEUTENANT COLONEL L.C.M.S. ALERY, M.P.,

&C..

&c.,

800.

compulsory