In the industrial field we saw little or nothing to commend itself to the British industry other than in one factory in particular, where we saw some very high quality garments made which were linked together but even in this factory, the tempo of production was considerably below that which will be acceptable in the United Kingdom.
The delegation was somewhat surprised at the number of operations still undertaken in the production of garments and the lack of mechanical aids and assistance to the operatives and in most cases, the absence of any approach to make the job simpler or easier through a study of ergonomics. The number of hand sewers and menders seemed higher than one would expect in the United Kingdom. This is a reflection of the lack of quality control on the knitting machines but one must accept that an industry growing as rapidly as the Knitwear industry in Hong Kong must be facing great difficulty in this particular sphere.
We would like to express our sincere thanks to the Foreign Commonwealth Office in London and to Mr. G. Foggon and Mr. Pridle in particular, who did so much to make this visit so valuable. Whilst we were in Hong Kong the Labour Department of the Colonial Government did all they possibly could to assist us during our visit and it would be invidious to try and select individuals who gave so much of their time in helping us to see the Knitwear industry in the colony.
We would like to mention Mr. Richardson and his staff and to thank them for the kindness and courtesy which they displayed to us. The success of the visit was due in no small way to their preparatory work, enabling us to see so much in such a short time.
To Mr. Leong Fook Kee, we might almost say “our Man in Hong Kong". who is employed by the International Textile and Garment Workers Federation to try and organise the Textile Garment Workers in Hong Kong-we offer to him our sincere thanks for the unstinting manner in which he helped us and we now have a deeper appreciation of the task before Leong but we are confident that we have the right man working on our behalf.
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