7.2.
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Mr Walford
Sir D Watson
Sir B Norris (Away)
PS Mr Royle
Private Secretary
a freed
A.R:
Serataing of State
Flag A
1. The Secretary of State read and commended the Governor's
annual despatch for 1972. Sir D Watson and Sir E Norris have
proposed that we should send a formal despatch in reply
endorsing the policy approach outlined by the Governor and
commending the vigour with which, despite the difficulties,
the problems are being tackled.
2. Such a despatch could also help the Governor with his
own government and officials by making it clear that his
activist policy has the support of the Secretary of State.
There are elements in Hong Kong who disapproved, to a greater
or lesser degree, of spending large sums of money on social
projects, of the policy of involving the population in
development and in the anti-crime campaign, and of the
management consultants' plans to reorganise the structure of
the Hong Kong Government. There are also too many officials
there who on occasion forget the underlying community of
interest between Hong Kong and Britain.
3. A new development which began in 1972, but which has
accelerated rapidly since the Governor's despatch was written,
has been the wild boom on the Hong Kong stock exchanges, and
associated steep rises in land prices and rents.
developments are unhealthy. They are dangerous in themselves
Both these
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/because