TNAG-0087-FCO40-123-Conditions-of-employment-for-Hong-Kong-Chinese-working-in-th-1969 — Page 34

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Our Ref: 16/108CD.

Dear Bunny

Ar. Brown.

LONDON S. W. 1

we shall have to look agani?

in the in due course at our drift- Letter to nus Jeger

7th March, 1968.

light of this e.q. X below,

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I enclose for your information a copy of the model contract which has been in use since September, 1967, by the Labour Department in Hong Kong for Hong Kong workers other than those covered by employment vouchers who take up employment in Britain.

I am sending copies to Sheila Ogilvie as well as to the Hong Kong Chinese Liaison Office.

22

I also enclose a copy of a recent letter from the Labour Department to Sheila Ogilvie explaining why the Hong Kong legislation applies only to Hong Kong workers who are not subject to the Commonwealth Immigrants Act but come to this country as aliens under Home Office work permits. In brief the distinction is determined by whether or not the worker's stay once he is admitted is limited. If it is limited, then the question of repatriation arises and the Ordinance applies.

As a matter of interest I note from the 1967 Hong Kong Annual Report that 197 employment vouchers were issued to Commonwealth citizens in Hong Kong as compared with 757 labour permits to Hong Kong residents of non-British nationality. It is obviously very much easier to get to Britain if you do not claim to have been born in Hong Kong.

Incidentally, I recall that when I was in the Labour Department we received applications from Common- wealth citizens not connected with Hong Kong who wished to enter Britain to work and that we forwarded these to the Ministry of Labour. Many of these were from Australian girls who were travelling around the world on a sort of protracted working holiday. Others were from Indians. I assume that applications sent in by the Labour Department to the Ministry of Labour on behalf of persons who have only a very tenuous connection with Hong Kong will not be debitted against the new Dependent Territories quota but that the Dependent Territories quota will be reserved for persons actually born in one of the Dependent Territories. If this limitation is not made, the object of having a separate quota might be defeated.

Yours sincerely,

(P.C.M.Sedgwick).

fat sesowa

W.S.Carter, Esq., C.V.0., Commonwealth Office,

Curtis Green Building, Victoria Embankment, S.W.1.

TELEPHONE WHITEHALL 01-930-7951

BG Muchawa

Sen. Murali'n Dept, c.c.

Encl: (2) PCMS/VMH.

CABLES HONGAID LONDON S.W.I