Reference...
with 15
Mr Gaminara
Please see the Governor's Annual Despatch at (5).
The despatch, which is considerably longer and more detailed than last year. is in the main con- cerned with developments in the economic and educ- ational fields.
The trends appear much as they were reported last year and, in general, progress is at much the same pace/acceleration though with some anxious peering ahead.
There is little change reported in the political situation. Enrolment of pupils at communist schools shows a rise of about 1% over last year and, though there is again understandable anxiety expressed about these activities, the rising number of non-communist school places and the maintenance of last year's propertions of communists sending their children to non-communist schools is encouraging.
The Governor's anxieties seem to be summed up in the last sentence of his dispatch.
Mr Laird Mr Kinnear
Mr Appleyard
(K. Marsh)
HONG KONG DEPARTMENT
5/5
At (5) is the Governor's "state of the nation" despatch which he sends us annually. His last des- patch is at (4) on H.K.K. 13/23 and you will see that these despatches, together with our replies to them, are issued in the F.C.O. Print series.
2.
This year's despatch dwells understandably on the on the social and economic fields of activity and some quite remarkable figures are quoted to indicate the incredible progress that has been made, particularly in the latter sphere.
3. On the political side there is nothing of part- icular note, but the following points are of interest:
Paragraph 22: Legislation controlling the entry of Commonwealth immigrants was introduced towards the end of last year. This legislation was primarily (but not overtly) aimed at controlling the entry of unskilled Indians and Pakistanis. It was introduced without difficulty and in close consultation with the department and so far as we know it has given rise to no difficulties.
Paragraph 24: This relates to the current tactics of the Communists and does little more than reiterate what we already know. You will note that the Commun- ist press "is often libellous, habitually seditious and guilty of constant distortions": but as you know the Hong Kong authorities cannot do much about it, owing to extreme C.P.G. sensitivity on the subject.