A dinner was given on Monday night at the Union Club which was attended by the' principal Chinese Cotton Millowners. Mr. Pan Chingpoo, compradore of Messrs. Jardine, Mathson & Ca., Ld., was the host, and Mr. James Kerfoot, formerly manager of the Ewo Cotton Mills Department, was the principal guest. The Chinese Cotton Millowners had expressed a desire to hear Mr. Kerfoot's viers on the cotton industry in China and its future prospects, and in an interesting address, he said It is a great pleasure to meet again some of my old friends amongst the Cotton Millowners of China. You honoured me in a sim-liar manner when I retired from the management of the Ewo Cotton Mills Department some four years ago, and on that occasion I said that the future prosperity of the cotton industry depended on three great essentials, namely, an intelligent and efficient labour force; a cheap and adequate supply of good cotton; and cheap coal.
To-day you are no nearer any one of these three; in fact, you have gone backwards. The operatives are worse in quality. Cotton is scarce, poor in quality, and expensive. Coal is inferior, and 40 per cent. higher in price. I am very sorry that when the mills were making the abnormal profits ju 1919-20-21, reserve funds were not created towards an educational scheme for the operatives, and technical education for the mill staffs.
I have no hesitation in say-! ing, and you will agree with me, that the operatives employed in the cotton mills in China are the lowest in intelligence as compared with those employed in other in-; dustries, where skilled labour is} required for working expensive raw material, and attending to valuable. machinery. This I attribute to the long hours, and working during the night, especially as regards the girls and women. Nothing has been done to raise the status of; labour. The Government seems to} be indifferent, but in the employers' own interests, especially with the prospect of keener competition, it} will be a good investment to start; a system of education in connexion with every mill, on somewhat sim-liar lines to those we had in our Lancashire mills; children working half-day, and attending school the other half, say between the ages of 10 to 14, and continuation classes after that age. There should. be a sufficient number of returned students to take the positions of teachers. If the hours of labour are} reduced, as proposed under the new -labour laws, and the age limits; raised, something may be done in} this direction.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.