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branch office of the Ministry of Labour to get in touch with Mr. Burn, inviting him to his office, and talk to him about contracts of employment and "enforcement" it is so very plain that Mr. Burn simply does not understand. There are plenty of kind, helpful officials in the Ministry of Labour who could do this.
15. The Contracts of Employment Act, 1963, is the responsibility of the Ministry of Labour in this country and it is not unreasonable to expect that the officers of the Ministry should at least advise workers whether their contracts are in accordance with the law. They cannot, of course, take up the workers' case, but the one of which we have a record on this file appears to have been over a matter of termination of contract and giving of notice, which is covered by the Contract of Employment Act, and I should have thought that at least someone in the Ministry of Labour could have explained to the Chinese worker what the position was, instead of sending such a chilly, unhelpful letter.
16. There are suggestions on the file that the wages paid to the worker are not the business of the U.K. Ministry of Labour, but this is of course not true. In many cases and many occupations, as I have said above, wages are fixed by law and the laws are enforced by the Ministry of Labour. I do not think they should take the attitude that they have nothing to do with them Of course,
if the worker is employed in a form of employment where the wages are not fixed by law, then the Ministry is not in a position to help. Similarly if the wages set out in the contract and paid to the worker are better than those fixed by the law, the Ministry could tell the worker so but is unable to do anything further about it. The worker's contract says that/whether the law of the country provides more favourable benefits to workers than those specified in the contract, the worker shall be entitled to such benefits.
17. Mr. Burn keeps on writing about "unenforceable clauses" but so far as one can see from this file, the Ministry of Labour has never explained to him that it is not its duty to enforce contracts of employment at all in any circumstances.
18.
Commonwealth Office
There is a mystifying suggestion on the file that Mr. Burn rang up someone in the Commonwealth Office who said that he did not think that the law of Hong Kong could be enforced in Britain this obviously only added to the confusion.
19.
Hong Kong Department of Labour
Like our Ministry of Labour I do not think this Department comes well out of all this. Their letters are either coldly factual or somewhat acid and do not really help. No doubt they were irritated by Mr. Burn, but they could have been more helpful to him. The position in Hong Kong needs some explaining. Of the people who come to Britain to work, some are British (i.e. Commonwealth) and the Commonwealth Immigrants Act applies to them. The rest are non-British i.e. alien, Chinese who live in Hong Kong but have not Commonwealth citizenshhip: they are on a par with any other foreigner who comes to Britain - from Spain or Sweden, South Africa or the U.S.A., or anywhere else in the world.
20.
Once a Commonwealth citizen has a voucher to come here for employment he can stay here for ever if he wishes and behaves himself. The number of vouchers issued is low; most of the Chinese from Hong Kong come to join friends or relatives (and often to work for, or with them) and it is nobody's business how their fare is paid. Repatriation is not enforced. All this is in fact implied in the word "immigrant".
21. Aliens on the other hand, get permits to work here which are valid for limited periods only (often only one year). They may be renewed, but without a valid permit the person concerned cannot stay in this country at all. He has
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/come
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