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Mr. W.S. Carter.
Hong Kong Department.
Hong Kong
Imprisonment of Communist Trade Union Officials.
I was surprised at the information conveyed to us by Hong Kong telegram 592 that 23 trade unionists had been charged with holding office in a union while not being employed in the trade or occupation concerned.
2. On a point of detail, the opening sentence says that all 23 were found guilty of the offence of "holding trade union office while ineligible to do so". It seems rather surprising that all of them should have been officers of a single union, even though the definition of "officer" in Cap.332 includes any member of the executive.
3. But what I find disturbing is that a prosecution of this kind, which elsewhere would have been under- taken with some delicacy and care with perhaps only one or two key figures such as the Secretary or President being selected, was undertaken on such a scale without, apparently, any prior consultation with the Secretary of State.
4. It was predictable that the individuals concerned would refuse to pay any fines and would choose to go to prison and the implications, therefore, of this prosecution can as yet hardly be measured. Certainly I find it hard to share the complacency of the Hong Kong telegram which records that "the Communist press has attacked the sentences on predictable lines". There are few places where such sentences on trade union "officials" would not be attacked; but in this case we have the additional complication that we have no means of predicting how Peking will re-act or what instructions it will give to local Communist officials in Hong Kong.
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY N51
1 AUG 1969
HKK 14/37
(G. Foggon) Uverseas Labour Adviser
31 July 1969
Copy to Mr. C.H. Godden, Private Secretary to
Lord Shepherd.
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