TNAG-0873-FCO40-1083-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 117

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION-OF..

HUMAN RIGHTS

HKK210/2

REPORT FOR 1979 TO THE UN WORKING GROUP OF EXPERTS ON SLAVERY

CHILD LABOUR IN HONG KONG

DISK GUWAN *NDIX

T12012 23

Hong Kong is a territory of approximately 400 sq. miles located on the southern tip of China's Guangdong (Kwangtung)

province. It contains about 4 million people, 98% of whom

are Chinese. It is administered by Britain as a colony with

a British Governer appointed by Royal Instructions and Letters

Patent, a civil service and police whose top ranks are largely expatriates, a wholly appointed Legislature whose unofficial

(i.e. non-civil servant) membership is overwhemingly drawn

from representatives of big business, being top bankers,

industrialists etc. Overall reponsibility for Hong Kong lies

with the British Parliament and the Foreign and Commonwealth

Office. The Treaties under which Britain acquired the

territory between 1842 and 1898 are disputed by the government

of the Peoples Republic of China at whose request Hong Kong

was removed from the purview of the UN Decolonisation Committee

in 1972. China's position is that Hong Kong is Chinese territory

and that she reserves the right to act unilaterally "when the time is ripe" (1). In the meantime, China has placed little

restriction on the British authorities and indeed provides Hong

Kong with much of their essential supplies such as water and

fresh food.

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Prior to 1949 and the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong's economy was largely based around the entrepot trade with China. In the early 1950's came the beginnings

of large-scale industrialisation starting with textiles whose

introduction to the Colony was in the hands of industrialists

from Shanghai where the industry had been established for decades.

The use of child labour in China before 1949 was widespread and

unremarkable and it is fair to suggest that many of the employers opening up for business in Hong Kong carried with them a benign

attitude to the practice.