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11.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts also discussed these points with the
Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong. The present Governor is very well
aware of the need for social progress. I attach a note on the
Hong Kong Government's programme. This does not amount to a
complete defence against those who say that Hong Kong is doing too
little too late. But the housing programme in particular is a huge
one by any standards. Hitherto Hong Kong have been able to pay for
development programmes out of recurrent revenue, and they could be
criticised for refusing to go into debt in order to speed the process.
Their reason for avoiding this has, as Mr Roberts said, partly been to
avoid over-commitment of resources, and partly because of their
generally conservative finance policy. The argument for the latter
has been that it has kept Hong Kong stable and prosperous. It is
difficult to argue, in the face of Hong Kong's undoubted success,
that the policy has been wrong. At any event it is now having to
be modified in the light of the sharply increased social programme and
of inflation, particularly since the oil price increases which have
hit Hong Kong very hard. The next few years are going to be
difficult ones for Hong Kong financially.
It will not be easy to
urge them to accelerate their already greatly expanded social
programme.
8 May 1974
сс Mr Youde
1.
DCSE'
A C Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.
On the question of labour legislation and labour relations
CONFIDENTIAL
/we have