:
i
!
+
J
CONFIDENTIAL
2.
winter-sale purchasing run (Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand) are tending to miss out Hong Kong, partly because of the U.S. Government advice to its citizens to avoid non-essential visits to H.K. It is of interest, and perhaps of significance, to note the conspicuous absence of the substantial Indian and German trading community in the Folice Education Fund donation list.
A few American entrepreneurs, known to have flirted with Taiwan a few weeks ago as an alternative to Hong Kong, are said to have returned disillusioned. Local entrepreneurs knew enough to be disillusioned before; it was freely forecast a week ago that there would be defections to Taiwan or Singapore the names have not emerged yet.
External Trade
-
-
-
All traders are preoccupied with the effect on visible trade four to six months hence. If we can avoid further turmoil in the next six weeks, in my opinion confidence of a sort will return to
other things being equal overseas buyers, and
we shall have no more than a recession from the autumn onwards. But if there are develop- ments in the next three months which can be depicted in sensational terms, the consequences for trade could be very serious and difficult to eradicate. All members of my advisory boards feel that a major propaganda effort in this sphere is essential.
Long Term Investment
I sense that everybody is resigned to cessation of long term external investment and that performance alone can bring this back. They are right. Industrial investment in Hong Kong is believed to be mainly self-generated; it is on this that we should concentrate; if we are seen to be winning, or even containing, the internal political battle, the first fruits will be resumption of internal capital invest- ment in expansion of industry.
Attitudes Towards Labour
Members of the T.I.A.B. and C.A.B. are now acutely conscious of the fact that social grievances in the industrial sector were the occasion, if not the reason, for political action which produced dis- order. There is an almost pathetic realisation that something must be done towards removal of such grievances; that the first target is to bridge the gap between management and the workpeople; and that this entails encouraging some sort of representations however unorthodox, of workers. I believe that we must capitalise on this change of heart immediately, perhaps by some dramatic extension scheme of personnel management training at all levels, perhaps under the aegis of the Productivity Council. At the same time a short term crash programme of counselling management action to be taken in circumstances of labour unrest at the enterprise level is absolutely vital.
1st June, 1967
Bab
(T.D. Sorby)
Director of Commerce and Industry
CONFUENTIAL