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I have accordingly endeavoured to make recommendations with these ends in view and I have not been unmindful of the late Mr. George Bernard Shaw's dictum:
"Do not do unto others as you would they should do unto you because their desires and tastes may be different.
II
GENERAL
41
35.
In order to draw a fair and accurate picture of the present position in Hong Kong, the population of which is almost wholly Chinese, it is essential to make reference to the political history of China especially during the present century in which are to be found the main influences which have determined Chinese thought and outlook.
36.
I have therefore taken the liberty of quoting from a report by Mr. H. R. Butters, a former Commissioner of Labour, which was published as a Sessional Paper in 1939 and constitutes an excellent and concise historical background. (See Appendix I). Subsequent Chinese history is too recent and well known to warrant recapitulation in any detail.
37.
It seems clear that the Chinese worker's outlook, in so far as trade unionism is concerned, is due to the way this form of organisation came into being and progressed in his own country. Modern industry in China did not develop gradually; its growth was very rapid and at its inception many of the former guilds disintegrated.
38.
Workers' unions then came into being, but they did not do so through the usual slow process of organisation. They were born in the chaos of revolutionary emergencies. In effect it was the mass movement of the workers, who had largely migrated from the villages to the towns to get more remunerative work in the new industries, to free themselves from semi-feudalism. There was no collective bargaining but riots and uprisings were frequent.
39.
Later the presence of Communists and others who had been abroad, where they had learned something of trade union organisation and strike methods, provided a new leadership. The Chinese, very capable of collective organisation, exploited these new ideas to the full.
40.
after the failure of the general strike in China in 1927, however, trade unionism in that country declined and the unions became little more than friendly societies. It will therefore be seen that trade unionism in China has either been intensely militant or excess- ively docile and never appears to have achieved the golden mean.
41.
The hostilities between China and Japan established a common bond in place of strife between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the revival of the trade unions, as a matter
f governmental policy, had its influences in Hong Kong where, moved by patriotism, they resumed activity chiefly of a political and nationalist character.
42.
In China the question while the Kuomintang was in power was whether trade unions should exist which represented the workers or whether organisations using that title should instead serve the political ends and purposes of the more anti-labour and reactionary elements of the Kuomintang, and the latter policy prevailed.
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