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CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Wood.
SECRETARY OF STATE
1.
Il be that it would be consulin 296 In direction of our tall on and with the Prince hinder to arust Hong Kong in the way
be thought we ought to look
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for offinstanties t'enfilet delay and so ar to bring sconance velimme for the out day It is time that we were thinking invert-ment but this is wa way
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invert-ment inspeople which will be mache
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AID TO HONG KONG fame lias iith Pilih machines.
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freem which we may life the profit-later. I hope you can Rifree-
Since late October 1970 there has been correspondence
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between your office and the Overseas Development Administration about possible grants to Hong Kong for the purchase of British equipment for their technical institutes. Unfortunately we have not reached agreement and I therefore feel I must submit the question to you for a decision. 2. Since the war we have provided about £1.75 million through our CD & W grants to help the Colony, first to rehabilitate itself in the early years and later to deal with the immense problems posed by the influx of two million Chinese from China. We still have about £400,000 of these
We old commitments to fulfil, and we intend to do so. discontinued any capital aid programme for the Colony several years ago because the growth of the Hong Kong economy and the rise in the income per head (now believed to exceed US$700) have put the Colony well above the level which qualifies
The same incidentally is for aid on the criteria we use. the case in Bermuda and the Bahamas, which are the other two relatively prosperous remaining Dependencies, but whose political situation is entirely different.
3. Mr Royle visited Hong Kong last autumn and discussed with Mr Tang, the Chairman of the Polytechnic Planning Council and a member of the Governor's Executive Council, a number of matters in the context of the future of tech-
In particular, Mr Tang drew nical training in the Colony.
to his attention the proposals shortly to be put to the Hong Kong Government for the establishment in the next few years of four intermediate technical institutes.
Mr Royle
CONFIDENTTAL,
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