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SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST AUGUST 23RD 73
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Pendry to speak for Colony
BY DAVID WATSON
The visiting Member of Parliament, Mr Tom Pendry, said last night he will express the concern felt by many people here about the slow pace of bringing about a more just society, when he meets the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, Sir Alec Douglas-Home.
Mr Pendry, who flies out of the Colony today after a month-long visit, said: "To my mind, Hongkong is entering into an extremely challenging decade, where second generation Chinese and by that I mean Chinese refugees are not accepting some of the conventions in Hongkong as their forebears have done.
"They are going to challenge and question much more than their parents did.
"The challenge for the Government is to accommodate this desire in the form of creating a better government structure and to assist in the evolvement of a democratic institution."
The most important issue, he felt, was the promotion of democratic trade unions.
"I think it is here that the area of conflict could be greatest in the years tc with rising inflation and the desire of workers to improve living standards." he warned.
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His other main concern is that in the Colony, one does not find people who consider themselves as "Hongkongese, he explained.
"There can be no identity unless people find they can have a part in the shaping of the society around them. They want to feel themselves proud."
Mr Pendry has already stated that he felt the Legislative Council to be undemocratic, and that it should have some form of workers' representation. The Urban Council should also be, extended, he said.
"This, plus trade union reform," he stressed, will act as a necessary safety valve in the future, because Hongkong is the kind of society where tensions are always just below the surface.**
The MP added: "There are not
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enough safety valves for people to let off steam and vent their views.'
He has already expressed these opinions to Government officials. !
"Hongkong is fortunate in having a Governor such as Sir Murray MacLehose, who understands the Chinese mentality much more than, perhaps, other Governors in the past.”
Hongkong's future lies with its people, and the next 10 years are terribly important.”
"I don't think Hongkong need worry about having an identity of its own, even with the geographical problems of being so close to the People's Republic of China."
But, he said that unless employers in Hongkong adopted a more imaginative approach towards better labour relations "then they may well get a situation developing where they have riots."
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"It would be very silly of them to ignore the problems which are in the society here. It is no good coming to a 1967 situation and saying: "Here we are again."
It is now time to take stock of earlier mistakes. said the Member of Parliament.
He explained his report to Sir Alec Douglas Home would be a “mixture” of assessments - both good and bad.
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"I'll give a balanced report, pointing out those things on the credit side housing, the possibilities of developments in industrial relations and 10-year programme for leisure activities.
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In his report he will mention:
The Godber affair, which he feels is "the most immediate problem" and the need to bring the wanted ex- policeman back should be taken up with someone of real authority.
The real anxieties felt in Hongkong over the question of the Colony's reserves being deposited in London.
The lack of progress in educational facilities and the limited opportunities available in Hongkong life for Chinese people.
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RECRVED IN
RAGI No.51
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OCT 1973
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