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unofficial members would like to be associated more closely with specific subjects of government. This is something else which I am having explored. What is more pressing is the need to replace some of the existing members, as their term of office expires, by members found from outside the business community if this is possible.
15. Labour
There are many fields in which new or improved policies must be developed. Labour is one of the most obvious.
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Department must play a much more positive role in future in educating employers and labour and in dealing with labour grievances and disputes and their underlying causes. An
effort must be made to improve personnel management and labour relations. (A full report has been prepared by the Overseas Labour Adviser and this is being circulated separately.) 16. Conclusions
The Hong Kong Government has, since the war, achieved enormous advances but the stage has now been reached when it is no longer good enough simply to provide houses and jobs. The form of government which has done well in the past is no longer appropriate to the problems and the environment in which it must now operate. The success of laissez faire has, it might be said, brought about the need to deal with the social problems of an industrial revolution. It is, in my view, essential that Government should adapt quickly to the new environment, since it may be that before very long the present communist campaign of violence may be replaced by a campaign of insidious and gradual subversion taking advantage of genuine grievances and weaknesses in Hong Kong.
17. For the present, the community reposes confidence in the Hong Kong Administration because of its handling of the
confrontation this summer. The Government has built up a reservoir of confidence and goodwill which could enable it,
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