Chinese cotton mill, the San Sing cotton mill, out of a far larger total of 5,339 employees, employs far fewer children, namely 430.
The same is true of the largest silk filatures, employing round about 1,500 and 2,000 persons. For, whereas 60 per cent, and over of the employees in the French, Italian, and British filatures are children under twelve, only 10 per cent. in the Chinese filature employing these large numbers are children under twelve.
The foreigners in Shanghai also employ a greater proportion of women workers than do the Chinese; for whereas, out of a total of 45,982 workers over twelve years of age employed in Chinese factories, 57 per cent. are women, out of a total of 85,862 workers over twelve employed in foreign Of the workers over twelve employed in factories, 70 per cent. are women. British factories, 67 per cent. are women (Cmd. 2442, p. 102).
(VIII) The China Association speak of the disorders of the warring military commanders.
How far has this warfare been facilitated, and even fomented, by foreign loans to certain Tuchans, and by the import of arms or ammunition from foreigners ?
Is there any foreign country having interests in China which can declare that some of its nationals have not, at some time, sent arms or financial support to one or other Chinese war lord?
(IX) The China Association state that the bulk of the trade of foreigners in China consists in importing and exporting. Foreign factories have been springing up in great numbers; but it is nevertheless the case that the bulk of the great profits made in China have been middlemen's profits, and the existence of the great middlemen's houses, notably in Hongkong, the great port of tran- shipment, and Shanghai, impedes the growth of direct trade between England and China, and the coming of Chinese buyers to England. The Sincere Company and others have, however, direct connections with factories in England.
(X) Finally, it is true that China is a great potential market. Perhaps it is even possible, as has been suggested, that the unemployment problem in Lancashire would be solved if every Chinaman could be persuaded to wear his nightshirt an inch longer!
China is at the same time" a Paradise for employers," in the phrase of the American Secretary of the Chinese Y.M.C.A. at Chefoo, quoted by H.M. Consul at Chefoo in the recently published Parliamentary Paper, China No. 1 (1925). The British Consul reports that "in all lines of industry, the employers exercise absolute autocratic control, including the right to hire and fire at will," and that by far the greatest amount of foreign capital invested in industrial enterprises in Chefoo is British.
Do we want to preserve this "employers' paradise," at whatever cost to Chinese life and British reputation?
In regard to this there are two considerations :—-
(a) Does not the sweated labour of men, women, and children in China
throw English workers out of employment?
(b) Is it possible to improve trading relations between the two countries at the bayonet point, with machine guns and armoured cars, and generally by a display of force? Is not the better and more honourable way to trade on equal terms, to end injustices which remain from the past and improve the workers' lot?
CHINESE INFORMATION BUREAU,
65 BELGRAVE ROAD,
LONDON, S.W. 1.
July 14, 1925.
Enclosures of
LONDON CALEDONIAN PRESS LTD., 74 Swinton Street, Gray's Inn Rd., W.C.1 —W10200
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