ENG-1946 — Page 32

16

there were 136 guilds registered with memberships ranging from a few hundred up to five thousand. Many of these guilds are joint organisations composed of masters and men, and, as with medieval guilds in Europe, their object is to provide social intercourse together with sickness, funeral, and other charitable benefits for their members. During the two decades before the war several of them had begun to develop along the lines distinctive of modern trade unionism. The Japanese occupation, however, brought their further develop- ment to a complete standstill. They are now in the process of recovery. A few of the larger and more influential of the Labour Guilds are:

Name.

Chinese Engineers Institute. Hong Kong Seamen's Union

Hong Kong Barbers' Guild .

No. of Members. Established.

4,500

1908

5,000

1937

1,600

1918

Taikoo Dockyard Workers' Club Tung Tak Coolies Guild

·

·

2,000

1946

1,700

1921

Chap Yin Stevedores Guild.

•

2,000

1917

H.M. Naval Yard Workmen's Club... 3,000

1946

Motor Drivers' Guild

2,800

1920

Hong Kong Government Junior

Employees Association

•

3,000

1946

Hong Kong Restaurant and Tea

House Workers Guild

+

3,200

1921

Hong Kong Hawkers Trade Union. ... 1,000 masters

4,000 men Hong Kong Junks General Association 2,000 masters

6,000 men

1939

1917

Hong Kong Spinning & Knitting

Workers General Guild

1,200 (900 females) 1939

Hong Kong Tramways Employees

Association

800

1931

Hong Kong Foreign Labour Union

1938

(Hotel & Domestic Workers).... 2,000

Labour Advisory Board.

During the Military Administration a Labour Advisory Board was set up, the membership of which consisted of representatives of several of the larger European firms and of the Services, under the chairmanship of the Labour Officer. On the resumption of Civil Government the Board was recon- stituted on a tripartite basis, its members representing the interests of European and Chinese employers and of Chinese labour. The Labour Officer continued to preside as ex officio chairman. The Board held a number of meetings during the