(E) Report by Dame Adelaide Anderson, DBE, on Tabour Conditions in China Education and Research in relation thereto and the Training of Welfare Workers and Employment Managrs

• Author: Anderson, Adelaide
• Pages: 188

(E) REPORT BY DAME ADELAIDE ANDERSON, D B E, ON LABOUR CONDITIONS IN CHINA EDUCATION AND RESEARCH IN RELATION THERETO, AND THE TRAINING OF WELFARE WORKERS AND EMPLOYMENT MANAGERS

No educational proposals that omitted to take into account the state of labour min manufacturng industry-as m agricultur-in so large, and at the same tnme so changing an industrial country, could be complete In fact, the attention of the delegation has been drawn directly and indirectly to the subject, and valuable memoranda and notes have been received from several wi1tiesses on some of its many-sided aspects For example, the need has been strongly urged of eomparative study and research m the field of eoonomic and industrial organisaton of the ountry and Its people, with special reference to rIsng modem midustry, of more and

higher teaching on the fundamental conceptions and princples of modern economic life, not only so far as it is the same m all countries, but also m relation to the particular conditions already developed m China, and to the parallel coonitions m other Eastern countries, especially in Japan (See memorandum from Professor J B Tayler, Yenching Umversity, on Promotion of Economic Science, &c ) The attention of the delegation has also been drawn with emphasis to the part that is actually being played m the hfe of the nation by the present industrial revolution that is n progress m treaty ports, especially m Shanghai,

Tien-tsm and Hankow, and m many other and more completely Chinese centres, for example, Wusih, Wuchang, Tsmanfu, &c, m the midst of large and apparently almost untouched survivals of old world forms of productivc mdustry and transport (Incidentally, it should not be forgotten that m China hes a great field for exploration of the old idustrial hfe that has vanshed in Western Europe, m some ways far more readily comparable with the Western than are the survivals of domestic industry m India) The idustrial transformation exercises influences so far beyond what appears to be its actual scope that it is said, by some of those who have presented material to the delegation, that it is ' playing a vital role m the regeneration of the nation It is poited out by this group of writers-Mr M T Tchou, Mrs Sun Yat-sen, Mr Fong F Sec and others-that increasing numbers of the people are being drawn into industriahsed areas, with the result that China is being faced with large social, hygienc, housing and various economic difficulties resembhng those which have fundamentally altered national hfe and inter national relationships of the West m the past century and a half These writers select for the special consideration of the delegation, with a view to grants-m ad from the British China Indemmty Fund, a few of the leading problems that now arise in China, as they invariably have done m the other countries that have passed from the stage of domestic and village industry, for home markets, to power-driven industry m factories and large works, for world markets Since China has come, of choice as much as through Western influence, into the earlier phases of this world-wide move ment, it is of great interest to note the sequence of subjects in the statement of problems by those Chinese writers They follow the sequence m which these problems were dealt with, administratively, m Great Britain first and then throughout the West 1 Child labour 2 Education 8 Working conditions of labour 4 Hygiene of industry 5 Housing and social condition of labour And why does child labour appear first on the ist? Certainly not because it was first imported into industry by the factory system, as a good many writers have tended to assume As can be seen anywhere m China-in Peking as well as m Tien tam, m Wuslh as in Shanghai, m Wuchang as m Hankow, and so on-it is customary for children to be put to work at a very young age, as It was in any European country before the Industrial Era, where the standard of living was low and parents very poor And so the report of the Chlld Labour Comumsslon of Shanghai, pubhshed m July 1924, said' There s no doubt that it is the general practice for the vast majority of Chinese children to be made by their parents or others having authority over them to commence work at the earliest age possible, having regard to the nature of the work available Where the family is engaged in tillng the soi...