ENG-1958 — Page 34

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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

pending the enactment of the full Employment Bill, regulations under the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance were drawn up incorporating these and other proposals to ameliorate working conditions for women and young persons. The new regula- tions were considered and approved by the Labour Advisory Board and by the Legislative Council and will come into force on 1st January 1959.

Among the events which affected the Colony's industries during the year, none was more important than that connected with Lancashire opposition to imports of Hong Kong cotton and made- up goods. Grey cloth from Hong Kong first entered the United Kingdom market in any real quantity in 1953, and, initially, a large part was processed there for re-export; imports were, how- ever, insignificant in relation to those from India. Opposition to the import of cotton textiles from Asian countries mounted after 1955 and at the end of 1956 the United Kingdom Cotton Board despatched a Mission, led by Sir Cuthbert Clegg, which reached India in December and Hong Kong in January of the following year. The Mission succeeded in reaching an understanding with India on the limitation of cloth exports, dependent on similar understandings being reached with Hong Kong and Pakistan. The discussions with Hong Kong textile interests were complicated by the lack of a representative textile body with whom to negotiate. An understanding could not at first be reached and in the meanwhile local exports of cotton textiles to the United Kingdom continued to increase.

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Following an exploratory visit by Sir Frank Lee, K.C.B., G.C.M.G., Permanent Secretary to the Board of Trade, in March 1958, a delegation from the Cotton Board, led by Lord Rochdale, M.C., Chairman of the Board, arrived in the Colony on 23rd September and began negotiations with an eleven-man ad hoc Hong Kong Textiles Negotiating Committee, headed by the Hon. J. D. Clague, C.B.E., M.C., which had been set up with the help of the Government. The Cotton Board delegation eventually left Hong Kong on 9th October after securing an agreement in principle that exports of cotton manufactures to the United Kingdom should be limited for a period of three years, but the terms of the undertaking by local industry were not finally agreed until the last days of December, to come into force as from