Major Government Reports

This is the report of the commission set up by the Governor in July 1934 to enquire into the situation of trade depression in Hong Kong and to offer recommendations for improvement. It remarked that this was the first comprehensive report about the economic conditions of Hong Kong. While Hong Kong's export was affected by the world economic depression since the early 1930s, the report said that Hong Kong was also greatly affected by the changing political and economic conditions in China. In the report there were summaries from the pre-war government's perspectives about Hong Kong's relationship with China and its position as a colony in the British Empire in terms of trade, commerce and industry. The commission recommended that the government should strike a balance between maintaining laissez-faire policy and adopting measures to support the local industries which were demanded and not in conflict with the British Empire. The report was submitted on 24th October 1921 to the Governor in Council. It consisted of two parts. Part I reported on the overall situation of child labour in factories and Part II described a few observations of children employed in casual labour. Factory representatives had attended meetings with the Commission and supplied information about the use of child labour in their factories. The commission members also made site visits to the factories where they drew down their observation. The factories participated in the investigation were manufactures of knitting, tobacco, perfumery, biscuit, glasses, paste and shipyards and engineering. The commission made recommendations on minimum working ages, working hours and the maximum weight children should carry. The report also described the working conditions of children employed in 10 selected factories. In Appendix 2, a commission member, Mr H.R. Wells, gave a separate report on his proposal for free education for children and the response from the Director of Education. In Appendix 3, the two Chinese members, Mr Li Ping and Mr Chow Shou Son, gave their separate reports stating the reasons why child labour could improve the livelihood of poor families. The 65-page report was prepared by the first Labour Officer in Hong Kong. It consists of 12 chapters. The first three chapters gave an overview of the political situations of China and Hong Kong respectively from the 1910s to 1930s, and the historical, cultural and social connections between the two places. Chapter 4 and 5 summarised the history of social legislation in Hong Kong and the related legislation for handling labour strikes, contract and emergency. Chapter 6 to 10 detailed the general working conditions in the Chinese factories, the livelihood of workers and the wage levels of various types of workers in different industries. Chapter 11 described the background, the jobs and the living standards of 20 workers of various classes who had supplied information of their jobs and standards of living to the Labour Officer. In the final chapter, the Labour Officer provided his recommendations to improve the labour conditions in Hong Kong. The report detailed the living and housing conditions of the middle class and working class in Hong Kong and Kowloon. It proposed plans and measures to increase housing accommodation by building more houses and improving transportation. The report was drawn by the commission appointed by the governor to study the housing problems in Victoria and Kowloon with special attention to overcrowding and its effect on tuberculosis and to suggest steps to remedy the conditions. It reported on the living standard and housing conditions of the poorer classes in Hong Kong. One phenomenon was that the majority of Chinese operated industries were of "home industry" character and couldn't afford to build independent factory building. It found that the ground floor of most tenement houses for householders were occupied by shops and workshops. The commission made proposals as to induce the factories to move away from populated districts and to build up-to-standard houses for the poor classes. At the appendices, there were floor plans of typical tenement houses in congested district.