- 8.
"And, of course, we are still seeing what we can do to help with
the extension of the runway at Kai Tak Airport.
"However, as I have already said, direct financial assistance from
Britain should not be the touchstone of our confidence in you.
"There are many other ways in which we can and do help, for example, by
the sharing of our expertise in many fields and providing staff and expert advice
over a wide range of important social and educational projects.
"But just as it is necessary for Britain to adapt itself to the
challenge of the 1970's and 80's, so it is necessary for Hong Kong to maintain
the speed of change for which it is famous in order to meet rapidly changing
problems.
"I have read with interest His Excellency the Governor's Budget address
As he rightly said, you have vast
in the Legislative Council in February.
orderly programmes of development in the fields of housing, the provision of
medical facilities, water supplies and roads, primary and secondary education,
university development, and so on.
##
Government Has Done Much
"The further progress envisaged will buttress the very considerable
development which has gone on over the past decade..
"I am aware that the Government has done much to reach down to the
people and their problems.
It was
"The City District Officer scheme is an impressive example of this.
Today I saw something of the work which is being done under this scheme.
most encouraging. And may I, at this point, say how greatly impressed I was
with the calibre of the Administrative Officers, many of them Chinese who are
working this scheme.
"As the Government pointed out, prosperity and rising standards of
living are increasing the disparity between the conditions of those few who fall
/into ......