* LEGCO
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5. One must question the relevance of a sample survey of opinion among women and young persons about whether or not they like the present overtime arrangements. The fact that women appear to be reluctant to accept a greater limitation than exists at present could simply be a reflection of their low wages and their need for overtime. A similar result would have been achieved had the shirt makers of the East End of London been surveyed in a similar way at the end of the last century.
Social Welfare and Social Security (paras. 44 49)
6. It is important to remember the fate of the report of the 1967 Working Party. This earned the displeasure of the then Financial Secretary who considered that the Working Party had gone beyond its terms of reference. The report was 'sat on' for more than 6 months and only reluctantly published - but there was no debate in LegCo. The report simply died. There is no evidence in the White Paper on Social Welfare recently published in Hong Kong that the report of the 1967 Working Party was examined by them; it is certainly not referred to in the text. Mr Rowe,, the then Director of Social Welfare, is on record in 1969, after visits he made to Singapore and Malta (among other countries) as supporting the introduction of a contributory social security scheme in Hong Kong.
7. The Hong Kong Government tell us that the "departments concerned are re-examining the subject at present with a view to seeing whether it might be possible to float some form of contributory scheme". The Director of Social Welfare gave no indication that anything of this kind was envisaged when I spoke to him during my visit; but if my comments have stimulated a fresh look at this problem - all well and good but the commentary in para.18 does not suggest that this is being looked at with real seriousness.
Future Priorities
8. Wages and the Cost of Living (paras 5 14)
The problem is set out clearly in my report and goes beyond the simple question of whether or not there should be minimum wage fixing machinery. The Financial Secretary had already on 29 November 1973 discussed the problem of the rising cost of living in Exe Although he referred to the fact that real wage rates had been falling, he sought to show that this was a short-term phenomenom and to minimise its actual impact on individuals. I did not find in any of my conversa- tions in Hong Kong any suggestion that wage levels needed to
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/be looked