settling conditions of employment. The difficulties of such negotiation are clearly increased where total trade union membership represents only a small proportion of the workers in the industry and where a multiplicity of small employers is involved. Especially is this so when improved rates of pay are sought by the less skilled workers, since a large pool of labour is always available when, as in recent years, conditions in China are unsettled. However, as mentioned above, the Governor has powers under the Trade Board Ordinance to introduce statutory regulations of wages for the industry and it is proposed to enquire from the Governor whether in his view the comparative absence of collective agreements in the textile industry and the wages paid, do not suggest that an enquiry into the industry with a view to the establishment of a trade board might now be undertaken. The Report of The Government of Hong Kong for 1949 on the application of the International Labour Convention un Minimum Wage Fixing suggested that the setting up of a trade board would be considered if new agreements in the industry were not forthcoming.
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C.0./9143/50
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