A very important step in dealing with the question of child labour in the Far East has just been taken in Hongkong by the publication in the Government Gazette of a bill to give effect to the recommendations of a commission which has recently been sitting on the subject. The appointment of this commission and the bill now before the public to give effect to its suggestions are the outcome of a movement started many years ago for the amelioration' of the lot of children whose work may be said to start practically as soon as they can fetch and carry. In introducing reforms the commission points out that its proposals are only tentative, but they have been framed in their present form as "it is obviously necessary to approach the problem cautiously and slowly in order to avoid upsetting long _establisbed social and economic conditions." Even so, what is proposed is a very great advance on conditions in the past. The age of the "child" for the purposes of this measure is fixed at 15, and among the measures proposed for adoption are the following:—No child under the age of 10 shall be empioydd in a factory, or any child at all in dangerous trades (boiler chipping, manufacture of fireworks or the manufacture of glass): no child under the age of 19 shall be employed in carrying coal, building material or debris: no child shall be allowed to work for more than pine hours out of the 2% in any industrial undertaking, and not for more than five hours continuously, while one day's rest in seven is compulsory; no child shall be employed in any industrial undertaking between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. 3 no child shall be allowed to carry unreasonably heavy weights, no load to exceed 40 catties. To see that the child is protected by this legislation a Protector of Juvenile Labour will be appointed. There are a number of people in Hongkong who would have wished the legislation to go much further, but radical changes in a case of this sort are unwise, and as matters stand the present proposals should be a source of gratification to those taking a humanitarian interest in China's labouring millions.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.