Report No......HK.113....
Continuation No..........4...
is by reading their newspapers and that is what they are concentrating on now, united front work.
do
J. Pettifer: If they should switch their tactics for example, to stirring up trouble on the labour front, you think they'd be a greater threat to the Colony in that respect than they are when they take to the streets. Sir David: Well it depends entirely on what they do,
I doesn't it, whether they're a greater threat or not. have to know precisely what you're suggesting they might do, before I could say it'd be a worse threat. There are certain things they could do which might be anembarrasment but, in general, of course, ordinary industrial action within the law is not something we would object to at all. J. Pettifer: To visit the smaller work places in Hong Kong you'd imagine that the Colony had no labour legislation of any kind.
This is not the case, the laws are on the books, but, largely because of corruption in the labour department and police force and because of the fantastic Chinese will to work under any condition, the law is rarely enforced.
There's a regulation that forbids the employment of children under 14 but where the child wants to work and where the employer pays off the factory inspector, the law means nothing. What's more, only factories registered with the Labour Department are ever inspected by anyone and there are thousands of small concerns that are unregistered and
left to their own Dickensian devices.
Now, Government talks an awful lot about labour
relations.
They seem to be aware that something needs to be done. So far the only practical step that I've heard about has been the Government has talked about calling in two experts. Now does this seem to you to be enough?
Mr. Davies: Far from it and I don't know what two foreign experts would be able to do in this can of worms here.
We've
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