Memorandum on Labour Conditions in China.

FOREIGN OFFICE, FEBRUARY 25, 1927.

Ar the International Labour Conference of the League of Nations held at Washington in October 1919, a number of draft conventions and recommendations were drawn up dealing inter alia with the limitation of the hours of work in factories and the

fixing of minimum age for the employment of children. Drastic modifications were introduced into the draft convention as regards India and Japan, while China was expressly excluded from its operation, as the conference recognised that circumstances made it impossible for China immediately to conform to Western standards. Certain of these conventions and recommendations have been adopted by a number of countries and are therein enforced. China has not adopted any of them but, on the 29th March, 1923, the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce promulgated a set of Provisional Regulations dealing mainly with child labour in factories. This action was the result of a movement initiated by the Foreign Employers' Federation of Shanghai, who requested the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to move their Government to pass factory legislation to which they pledged their most cordial support. The regulations, however, have never been brought into force anywhere in China and, when carefully examined by the Commission on Child Labour appointed by the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1923-24, they were found to be in many respects both unworkable and impracticable and thus unsuitable for adoption ("China No. 1 (1925)," (Cmd. 2442), pp. 123-126). The Commission therefore made certain recommendations as to restrictions which might be enforced in the International Settlement by means of an amendment to the byelaws. The Commission, however, pointed out that the regulation of industry within one particular area to the exclusion of the rest of the country had never before been attempted, and that the difficulty was increased by the fact that the International Settlement does not even comprise the whole of the industrial area of Shanghai. Imposing restrictions in the International Settlement might therefore have the effect of subsidising outside the Settlement those very evils which were being attacked within and of driving the children and their parents into the employment of the industries outside where these evils flourish unchecked. Moreover, in other countries the provision of means for the education of children had grown up side by side with the prohibition or other regulation of their employment and in China there was at present no system of education for children of the working classes. In spite of these difficulties, however, the Shanghai Municipal Council drafted a new

byelaw embodying the recommendations of the Child Labour Commission.

In accordance with the Land Regulations, the new byelaw was submitted to a special meeting of ratepayers called for the 15th April, 1925, the same day as the annual general meeting. Only 399 voters representing 622 votes attended, and as 924 votes, namely, one-third of the total, were requisite for a quorum, the byelaw could not be put to the vote. At the instance of the British consul-general a further effort was made to secure a quorum for another special meeting to be called early in June. A great effort was made to canvass the ratepayers and secure their attendance in sufficient numbers to form a quorum at this meeting, but the effort unfortunately failed for the following reasons: The Municipal Council had for several years in succession endeavoured, without success, to secure a quorum for the passage of certain other byelaws relating to control of the press, registration of produce exchanges and increase in wharfage dues. These measures were vehemently opposed by the Chinese residents of the Settlement, and the opposition to the proposed Press Byelaw in particular aroused a very violent and dangerous agitation. The Municipal Council intended, as a matter of routine, to bring forward these other byelaws at the same time as the Child Labour Byelaw, and the Chinese were consequently suspicious that the active canvass for a quorum for this byelaw was merely a device to secure passage of the Press Byelaw. A few days before the date fixed for the second special meeting there occurred the shooting in the Nanking Road, known as the Shanghai Incident of the 30th May, 1925. This produced a very dangerous situation. On the day of the meeting itself there was further violent rioting, accompanied by shooting. Some of the most enthusiastic supporters of the cause of labour reform were afraid of the consequences if the meeting were held, and the Municipal Council judged it prudent to send out private messages warning ratepayers not to attend. In spite of all this there was an increased attendance, namely, 514 voters representing 725 votes, but this was still not enough for a quorum. At both meetings a larger percentage of British voters attended than of any other nationality. The byelaw was thus not passed, but there is no doubt that a quorum would have been secured had normal conditions prevailed.

The consular reports published in "China No. 1 (1925)," (Cmd. 2442), show that labour conditions in China generally have not progressed beyond the old world domestic industry stage carried on in cottages and small workshops. Even in the few centres where big factories have sprung up labour has not become completely industrialised, but maintains its connection with the land and its native village in the country. The basic industry is agriculture and such native manufactures as exist are carried on as cottage industries and are often confined within the circle of the family. The general standards of life, housing and hygiene are, in European eyes, incredibly low. The standard of wages is correspondingly low and the 3879 Wt. 1500 4/27 F.O.P. 15878

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exploitation of child and female labour is regarded as both normal and natural. It is important, however, to note that in China as in the West this exploitation with all its attendant evils was in full vigour before there was even a beginning of a factory system, and that though the establishment of a factory system intensifies certain evils, such as the liability to accidents or to the effects of poisons, yet it is only in the factory system that there is any potentiality of improvement, for it is only under the factory system that general hygiene is practicable and the introduction of regulations dealing with these evils becomes possible. The Chinese have begun importing foreign machinery and establishing small factories not merely in Treaty ports, but in the larger towns in the interior, with the result that, grafted on to the domestic industry system, there are a number of small enterprises-and a few very large onesscattered over a wide area. This process began in the '80's and '90's of last century, some twenty years before there was a single British factory in China, but they can hardly be said to have established a factory system as yet. Even in Shanghai, a city of over 2 million inhabitants, most of the workers come from the country. They are farmers and fishermen and can support themselves at home in the old-fashioned manner. They are attracted to Shanghai not necessarily because they are starving, but because they can increase their earnings and perhaps their savings by working in factories and mills. Not all the members of the family will leave the farm. Their labour at the beginning may be seasonal, that is, they will return to the farm when they are needed there, or on such occasions as religious festivals, marriages, &c. Though the floods and famines which are of such constant occurrence in China are an important factor, generally speaking the mobility of the labouring classes is different from that of the European proletariat, which is driven by lack of employment from place to place. It is voluntary and social rather than economic in character. There does not yet exist, therefore, a completely urbanised labouring class, but there are many who from preference or of necessity have lost their direct contacts with the village. These and their children form the nucleus of such a class now rapidly springing into existence (see China Year Book," 1926, p. 912).

Labour is, therefore, unorganised and, though it is found that employment in factories raises the standard of living of the workers, there is a tendency for the low standards of pay and of housing, the long hours of work and the exploitation of women and children, which prevail in domestic and cottage industries, to be carried on into the small and scattered factories now springing up. There are, however, no violent contrasts between wealth and poverty and no marked division between class and class. The whole population lives in poverty, and low standards and long hours are in their eyes both natural and normal and there is consequently no public sentiment against labour conditions, which in Europe and America would be considered intolerable. The rapid spread of the Nationalist movement all over China is making a great change as regards the organisation of labour, but even now it would

be idle to expect that the Chinese Government should attempt to enforce regulations for which there is not only no demand, but which would be bitterly resented by the very persons in whose supposed interest the regulations were imposed. The reports from the British consuls in every part of China are unanimous in stating that the Provisional Factory Regulations of March 1923 exist only on paper; that there has been no attempt to enforce them anywhere; that the Chinese Government does not possess and is incapable of setting up the necessary administrative machinery for enforcing them and that any attempt to do so would fail owing to the corruption of the officials and the opposition of the people. It is probable that the sole reason for framing and promulgating these regulations was a naïve desire on the part of the Chinese Government to appear at Geneva and before the world at large in the guise of a modern progressive State.

The report of the Child Labour Commission in Shanghai and the consular reports from all over China, published in the Blue Book "China No. 1 (1925)," (Cmd. 2442), give a fairly complete picture of labour conditions in China. These reports have been well summarised by Mr. Tom Shaw, formerly Minister for Labour in the Labour Government, and the relevant portions of his paper are set forth below: :

"The first fact that emerges is that, however bad the conditions in British or Japanese factories may be, there is nothing to be hoped for by the Chinese workers from Chinese capitalists. Rather is it the fact that the Chinese worker is even more bitterly exploited by the Chinese employers than by non-Chinese employers, although the conditions in the factories of the latter are unspeakably bad. Another startling fact that emerges from the reports is the very small number of British mills in China. As a matter of fact, there are only four British mills in the country, but a very much larger number of Japanese mills. What is more important than the number of mills is the number of spindles and looms that are running in the mills, and the capital invested. It appears that there are 255,284 spindles and 2,608 looms running in British mills. In Japanese mills there are 900,000 spindles and 3,777 looms, but in 1924 there were orders placed for some 300,000 spindles and 1,400 looms for these Japanese mills. In Chinese mills there were some 2 million spindles and roughly 8,500 looms working. The capital invested in British mills was 8,300.000 taels. In Japanese mills there were 20.600,000 taels and 247,600,000 yen. In Chinese mills there were 48,245,000 taels invested and 58,090,000 dollars. These figures give a clear picture of the relative position in the textile industries in China, and will probably destroy certain illusions as to European and American capital that have been previously held.

"If I quote from a letter of Consul-General Barton, we shall see the picture of China as it appears to a British consular representative. May I say before quoting that I am not

accepting responsibility for the statements made? I am merely giving the authority, so that textile workers may judge for themselves as to the facts:

"Modern industrialism is in China being rapidly introduced in a country which, in many respects, is not organised to absorb it. There is in China practically no Civil Code, no Statistical or Health Department, no inspection of factories, no effective means whereby labourers could voice their own needs, no dependable Civil Service, and no Central Government capable of enforcing national legislation. Actual control is at the moment in the hands of provincial Military Governors, whose attitude towards organised labour appears to be dictated either by a desire for repression, when labour organisations, by strikes or agitation, interfere with their military communciations or economic strength, or by encouragement, when they calculate that labour organisations can be utilised to further their own political ends. Examples of this attitude are found in the recent executions by Wu Pei-fu of labour leaders in Central China, and of the encouragement of Socialists and Communists by Dr. Sun Yat-sen Kwantung and Lu Yung-hsiang in Chekiang. a beginning has been made.'

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Nevertheless,

"It is safe to say that whilst a beginning has been made. on paper to regulate the conditions and the hours of labour of textile workers, in actual fact there is no organisation which can or will apply the regulations, and the workers are simply at the mercy of their employers.

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The Child Labour Commission which was appointed by the Municipal Council of the International Settlement in Shanghai, a body which is not Chinese, said :

:

"There was little sign of public interest in Shanghai in the question of child labour. It (the Commission) also found that it was agreed by all the medical witnesses that the existing industrial conditions conditions in Shanghai are extremely adverse to the bodily and mental welfare of the Chinese child employee.'

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The following quotation is the opinion of Consul-General Barton, and is, I think, typical of the opinion of most men who know China without being financially interested in the industrial concerns in that country. It will show the necessity for educated Chinese opinion. Mr. Barton says:

"I then gave my opinion that before a reasonable. solution of the problem could be found it was imperative that national factory legislation be introduced by the Chinese Government and enforced throughout the country,