Following the announcement contained in the Municipal Gazette a week ago the decision of the Council to appoint a commission to go into the question of child labour in Shanghai, the correspondence published to-day is sure to attract the widest attention. There are three principal points brought up by the Joint Committee of Women's Clubs, these being:—Steps for the abolition of night work for children under 12 years of age; provision of part time schools for these workers; an addition to the powers of the Health Department for the supervision of ventilation, sanitation and safety in factories. It will be seen that these are moderate and sane proposals for legislation, and it should not be too difficult for the commission to produce sound, workable proposals, especially as its members will have before them the recent legislation enacted in Hongkong and the discussions which took place there. As regards the case in Shanghai, it has to be borne: in mind that the industrial concerns outside the Settlement will not be affected, directly at least, by any legislation which this commission may be able to bring about, and whatever measures are proposed must be so framed that they will not drive either capital or labour away from the actual Settlement and to places' where neither will be under control. That would he to stultify the work in prospect, for it is only by showing how successful from the industrial point of view this legislation can be that the mills in other places are likely to be brought into line.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.