TNAG-0873-FCO40-1083-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 119

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of the child labour. In 1976 a Granada Television team investigated

child labour for the "World in Action" series and found and filmed

children at work in factories, some working unprotected with hot solder. In November 1978, an investigative journalist for the Hong Kong Standard (an English language daily) found and photographed

children working in factories at Aplichau Island. (6) The HKCIC

survey we have quoted concluded that ..child labour is a comman

phenomenon in Hong Kong". (7) The standard work on labour

relations in the Colony, Chinese Labour under British rule by

Prof. J. Rear and Joe England, 1975, a cautious and academic

study, concluded that "... the extent of illegal child labour is

considerably greater than the Hong Kong Government is prepared to admit...(and that) the extent of legal child labour is intolerably high." (8) The exact present level of child labour

is hard to determine, although at the time of writing, an

independent sample-survey with a large sample and a detailed

questionnaire is being carried out and the results are expected

to be published before June 1979. A most unfortunate omission

of data pertaining to the paid employment of under 14 yr. olds in the tables of the 1976 By-Census precludes any estimate being made from that data. It is thus impossible to draw a comparison

with the situation revealed by data which appeared in the tables

of the 1971 full census. No estimate will be possible for the

1981 full census either unless this data is gathered and

published. The explanation offered in Parliament as to the omission

is disappointing.

When asked why the crucial information on paid employment for children under the age of 14 years was deleted from the 1976

By-Census, the British Governments reply was as follows:

"This

information was omitted as an indirect result of the Hong Kong

Government's decision to adopt in the 1976 By-Census the normal

international practice of defining the economically active

population to exclude children under 14". (24) This is a

remarkable decision, all the more so in the light of the fact

that in the course of the controversy surrounding the first