Shanghai

Other large industries of the same type include steam (silk) filatures—economically a very promising development for China— over 4o modern rice-hulling factories, leather factories and paper mills. Shanghai is one of the greatest centres of the engineer ing industry in the Far East. Among the largest enterprises of this kind are the Kiangnan Dock and Engineering works (Chinese Government) (dock), the Shanghai Dock and Engineer ing Co., Ltd. (British) (5 docks), New Engineering and Shipbuild ing Co., Ltd. (British), the Marine Motor Works (British), China. Engineering Works (Chinese), Eastern Engineering and Shipbuild ing Works (Sino-Japanese). There is also a great variety of mis cellaneous industries, including cigarette factories, egg product plants, meat and fruit-canning establishments. Apart from facto ries fully equipped in western fashion there is a large number of small workshop handicraft industries of traditional type and inter mediate establishments combining the old and the new features.

Social Problems.

The rapid development of industrialism in Shanghai has created a city proletariat of a type new to China and much larger than in any other Chinese centre. A recent esti mate places the number of industrial workers, disregarding wharf, ricksha and other transport coolies, at nearly 300,000. These in clude 66,000 cotton mill operatives, 15,300 iron workers and 14,00o workers in tobacco factories. They are drawn from a wide area and many of them are men who have left their families in distant villages and speak a dialect different from that of Shang hai, which belongs to the Wu group. There is also a large element of female labour which is particularly employed in the steam filatures and hosiery mills. Although the conditions under which factory labour is carried on differ greatly from the traditional methods of native production, the Chinese artisans in Shanghai have earned the reputation of being good industrial workers, and, relative to the wages received, the standard of efficiency is high. Labour is abundant and the struggle for existence is tense. Until recently there were no regulations governing employment in fac tories. Under such circumstances the evils associated with the early days of the Industrial Revolution in England were certain to appear in an aggravated form. In the years succeeding the War the social conditions of the Shanghai millworkers attracted wide spread attention. In response to considerable agitation and follow ing the example of Hongkong, a commission of enquiry into child labour was appointed by the Shanghai Municipal Council. The report of the commission in July 1924 disclosed deplorable con ditions, and the Municipal Council initiated regulations relating to child labour, designed within a period of four years to eliminate the employment in factories of all children under twelve years of age. At the same time improvements with regard to the safe guarding of machinery and the general protection of workers be gan to be introduced. The problems, however, still remain acute.

It has been quite definitely shown (see the impartial discussion in Dame Adelaide Anderson's "Humanity and Labour in China") that as a whole the Western millowners have a good record and that the conditions in the British cotton mills are above the aver age. The problems, indeed, are inherent in the introduction of the Western industrial system into a country with an abundant labour supply, a low standard of comfort and an entirely different tradi tion of craftsmanship. In Shanghai the situation is much aggravated by the special housing difficulty arising out of the con ditions already mentioned. The International Settlement and its immediate suburbs are already densely occupied with houses; land is dear and rents are high. Many of the unskilled workers, especially the men without families from distant parts, are there fore living under unhealthy conditions in wattle huts on the out skirts of the city beyond the boundaries of the Settlement, and are completely cut off from the traditional sanctions of Chinese family life. Meanwhile labour under external influence has begun to organize itself and all the phenomena of industrial unrest have been conspicuously displayed. In 1913 the National Labour Party was formed in Shanghai and the Federation of Labourers and Farmers in 1916. The first important strike of a modern type was that of the seamen in January 1922, which particularly affected Hongkong, and this was followed by many others and a great extension of the union movement. The strongest unions are those of the seamen, mechanics and textile workers but their funds are at present small and the membership uncertain. While the major ity of the strikes seem to have been chiefly inspired by economic grievances, e.g., low wages or alleged ill-treatment, the industrial issues during recent years have been increasingly complicated by political questions affecting the status of foreign powers in China, particularly since the "Shanghai incident" of May 30, 1925. On this occasion a demonstration organized by labour unions and students to protest against the killing of a workman by a Japanese foreman culminated in the firing by the police of the International Settlement on a crowd advancing on one of the police stations. Many subsequent strikes were of a purely political character. In the most recent phase the organisation of the workers and the Union Movement have been largely directed by the Kuomintang or Nationalist Party. Many conflicting tendencies are visible but there is a strong movement to prevent the development of class warfare and it is the hope of some that the ancient Chinese guild system can be adapted to meet the requirements of the new indus trial situation. Much may depend on the degree of co-operation between the authorities of the International and French Settle ments and those of the large areas outside under Chinese juris diction which are now known as Greater Shanghai.