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Parliamentary Question and Answer of last November. If you compare the figures given in the Parliamentary Answer, which are more or less average figures applying to industry generally, with those for the rubber footwear industry you will see that though wages tend to be lower in the rubber footwear industry there is no serious discrepancy. Moreover, if the minimum estimated monthly wages for unskilled female piece-rate workers are compared with the minimum daily wages for these workers it will be seen that some at least of the workers do not work the full standard month and this would suggest that the full monthly wages would certainly be sufficient for subsistence.
As to your question (b), although there are about 150 workers unions in Hong Kong we have no record of any operating in the rubber footwear industry; this is borne out by the comments in the remarks colum of the enclosed table.
On question (c), I think the comparison is clear enough from the Parliamentary Answer. If the percentage increase of wage rates since before the war is compared with the rise in the cost of living index (which is comparatively speaking reliable) it will be seen that in general wages have gone up by more than the cost of living since pre-war and that as a result real wages have increased.
As to your question (d), we can certainly say that wages generally in Hong Kong (and as pointed out above the rubber footweat industry does not differ very considerably from the general standard) are high by Far East standards; in fact they are probably
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