CO129-572-6 Hong Kong Seamen's Union- proposed proscription 22-1-1938 - 30-8-1938 — Page 16

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fled to join the agrarian soviets in Kiangsi and elsewhere.

In Hong Kong the lessons learned during the Strike and boycott were embodied in the Illegal Strikes and Lockouts Ordinance of 1927. This Ordinance declares illegal strikes organised for political purposes, and also declares unlawful in certain circumstances societies controlled from outside the Colony. It has never been invoked, but its existence serves as a warning that the conditions which brought about the situation in 1925 will not again be tolerated.

Gradually, as conditions returned to nomal, the Hong Kong unions were revived. Most of them were bankrupt, their reserve funds having migrated to Canton with the former officials. Three so-called unions were subsequently suppressed the teahouse waiters and the barbers, both notorious rackets, and a "knitting workers' union", a small organisation which attempted to intimidate non-members by throwing vitriol. But, for the most part, the reorganised societies kept within the law and confined themselves to their legitimate role of friendly societies and to representations made through the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs.

An interesting experiment made after 1927 by that Department was the attempt to organise a union to take the place of the proscribed Chinese Seamen's Union. Great difficulty was experienced in the early stages in securing suitable persons to manage the affairs of the union, for the reason that the control of the union funds