TNAG-0090-FCO40-126-Social-welfare-working-conditions-in-Hong-Kong-1968 — Page 172

Fédération Internationale des Travailleurs des Industries

du Textile et de l'Habillement

PRESIDENT:

JOHN E. NEWTON

VICE-PRESIDENT:

K. BUSCHMANN

Internationale Textil- und Bekleidungsarbeiter-Vereinigung

Internationella Textil- och Beklädnadsarbetarefederationen

INTERNATIONAL TEXTILE AND

GARMENT WORKERS' FEDERATION

120 BAKER STREET, LONDON, W.1

GENERAL SECRETARY: J. GREENHALGH

to whom all communications should be addressed

The Hon. M. D. Irving Gass, C.M.G.,

Colonial Secretary,

Government House,

Hongkong.

1041

TELEPHONE :

WELBECK 1745

TELEGRAM ADDRESS:

WORKINTEX, London, W.1

June 29th 1967.

rey/t/i

Which

Dear Sir,

I wish to acknowledge with thanks, your letter of 24th June 1967, wrote on behalf of the Governor in reply to my letter to him dated

39) 23rd May 1967.

As Mrs. Judith Hart, Minister of State, Commonwealth Office, when replying to a question in the House of Commons on June 27th stated "I am discussing this week with the Governor legislation providing for a phased reduction in the hours of work over a specific period, to 48 a week for all women and young persons employed in industry with adjustments to permissible overtime", the purpose of my letter to the Governor has been achieved.

There are certain points of your letter however, which call for a reply. You are completely wrong in your assertion that I consider the recent disturbances to have been fostered by the complaisance on the part of the administration towards the reactionary conduct of employers, and this is neither contained nor implied in my letter of May 23rd. On the contrary, I am in complete accord with the general admiration for the manner in which law and order was restored, and as you must know from my second letter to the Governor, Mr. Leong Fook Kee, our representative in Hongkong informed me of the whole affair. In addition, he sent me numerous press cuttings concerning how the people of Hongkong were re-acting to the crisis, and I immediately sent these to the Foreign Office so that they might know, from outside sources, how the situation was developing.

I cannot understand your reference to my comment about small business men transferring their concerns to Taiwan, as this was intended to convey to the Governor that I fully appreciated that such a course would add to the difficulties of the colony in the future. I am enclosing a press cutting which I received from Japan, which formed the basis of my comment. I am not prepared to argue as to the truth of the article, but again, you have no grounds for implying that it is my view that industrial production was affected by the disturbances.

You are of course, quite correct in your assumption that my main critionum of working conditions in Hongkong is that of the excessive hours being worked. In view of Mrs. Hart's statement, there is now no need for me to again state my views. It is indeed very gratifying for me to learn of the changed

./....