means as a contribution to this or that desirable
improvement in the Colony. During his recent visit
Lord Shepherd drew attention to the fact that the
United Kingdom is currently spending around £220 million
annually in aid. This vast sum is roughly 50% more
than Hong Kong Government's entire expenditure in a
budgetary year, and about half of it is disbursed in
straight grants for technical assistance and financial
aid. One must doubt whether the world would be its
present relatively peaceful field for trade interchange
if the United Kingdom chose to solve its balance of
payment problems by drastically cutting this aid
expenditure.
years.
At the same time Britain does have balance of
payments problems, and cannot afford to let this aid
total go on increasing in the way it has in recent
(Since 1963 for instance Britain's expenditure
on aid has increased by 35%). Hong Kong therefore
gets the benefit of British and other aid programmes by
indirect means, and it is greatly to the Colony's credit
that such fruitful use has been made of the peaceful
conditions made available.
The future outlook is therefore a very hopeful one,
in my view. I think that Hong Kong's exports to Britain
will continue to rise, even if Britain enters the Common
Market. For myself, a great deal of my time in Hong Kong
has been devoted to telling British exporters not to
overlook Hong Kong in their anxiety to expand their
sales to such promising markets as North America (to
which our exports have doubled in value in the last five
4