INTRODUCTION
The National Executive Committee of the National Union of Hosiery and Knitwear Workers, in furtherance of its policy of obtaining as much information as possible on an international basis on the methods of manufacture, payment and production throughout the world, sent a delegation, consisting of the General President, Mr. P. Pendergast, the Secretary of the Loughborough District of the Union, Mr. J. C. Smith, Mr. W. T. Morgan, a Lay member of the N.E.C., and H. L. Gibson, General Secretary, to study the conditions of employment and production in Hong Kong, Taiwan (Formosa) and Japan. This delegation left the United Kingdom on the 19th September and returned on the 6th October.
During the time they were in the three areas visits were made to factories, Government departments and various agencies, with the object of trying to elicit as much information as possible concerning the Hosiery and Knitwear industry in the Far East.
The report may be criticised in that in such a short space of time it is not possible to see the great span of the industry in the three areas visited but we have been assured by the people concerned in these countries that we obtained a very broad picture of the general conditions appropriate to Hosiery and Knitwear and, therefore, although this report may not be as comprehensive as one may desire, in the time available it is felt by the delegation to have produced sufficient information in very broad general terms to make the contents meaning- ful to the industry in the United Kingdom and to the members of the Hosiery and Knitwear Union in particular.
We were able to arrange the visits in Hong Kong and Taiwan through the energetic help afforded to the Union by H.M. Foreign Commonwealth Office in London and again, the representatives in both Hong Kong and Taiwan. The visits we were able to make in Japan were arranged through our friends and colleagues at the Japanese Federation of Textile Workers by the help and assistance of Mr. Jack Greenhalgh, General Secretary of the International Garment Workers' Federation.
It will be known that we have in Hong Kong an organiser working on behalf of the International Textile Garment Workers' Federation, Mr. Leong Fook Kee on whom we were able to call for assistance and help during our visit. This enabled us to have a much broader background to the industry than would have been possible without his, and his colleagues, undoubted help in the colony. In Taiwan we had the help and assistance of H.M. Deputy Consul, Mr. Featherstone and his colleague, Mr. Huang. Their background knowledge of the affairs in Taiwan were of tremendous benefit during the visit.
The Asian Regional Organisation of the International Federation of Textile and Garment Workers, in conjunction with the Japanese Federation of Textile Workers organised our visits to the factories in Japan and we had with us during all of our visits Mrs. E. Igarsaki, Secretary of the T.W.A.R.O., together with one of her colleagues from the Japanese Federation, who were
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