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29.
The new
Conditions in China, however, are changing. Communist China contrary to all tradition in that country would seem to be developing a passion for progress and honesty in administration. Since the inauguration of the Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China there has not only been a spate of social legislation but there would seem to have been a genuine attempt to implement the law. Factory inspection, with particular reference to health and safety, has been developed and extended, and schemes of social security covering sickness, accidents, unemployment, maternity and old age have been inaugurated (see appendices 8 and 9). These schemes, it is true, are to be financed mainly by direct taxation of employers and are to be operated by the Trade Unions.
30.
These Chinese Communist Trade Unions, however, now seem to be imbued with a degree of honesty of purpose and integrity hitherto unknown as is evidenced by many reports from China lika the following translation from the Chinese Daily Worker of August 1950: :
31.
Accounts trouble was as common as 'bureaucracy'. The Tsinan Trade Union Council in Shantung sumined up its findings unspairingly. There is no organisation,
· no discipline, no system of receipts, no budget and no accounts. Expenses were chaotic. Fourteen basic organisations had never collected membership fees, and embezzlement and corruption were found in many unions. The Peking Trade Union Council discovered irregularities in eight subordinate unions. Cadres of the Bathhouse Workers' Union gave themselves a travelling allowance of 20,000 dollars a month. The Brick Makers' Union bought a fountain pen for each Committee member out of cultural and educational funds. The Tientsin Trade Union Council had more to say on the same subject. "In many unions nobody is responsible for the safe- guarding and use of funds. Generally there is no. proper accounting system. 11 The Council's Auditing Committec discovered "waste, corruption, losses, unexplained expenses and confusion of accounts" in most unions, Altogether 83 cases of embezzle- ment and misappropriation of funds were brought to light. Cadres of two union organisations were found to have spent two thirds of the unions' funds on travelling expenses.. The Union of the Mat Workers' Co-operative threw a farewell party for a cadre out of labour insurance funds."
If that degree of honesty and self-criticism is maintained and currency and prices stabilised as they would seem to have been there would appear to be a distinct probability that the operation of the new national schemes of social security, which the trade unions are to control, will be more sucessful in achieving social
· progress than anything hitherto known in China.
32.
It will, I think, be gonerally agreed that in no cir- cumstances must real wages or social conditions in Hong Kong lag behind those enjoyed by the peoples of Communist China.
.35.
The workers in the Colony encouraged by one or other of the "Federations" will be constantly looking over their shoulders at progress in China, and Communist agitators will exploit to the full any lack of progress by what they will term "reactionary imperialists". The aim therefore must be to achieve a reasonably high material standard of life and social security for the maximum number of people, particularly those who are normally resident in the Colony and regard Hong Kong as their home.
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