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the communist trade unions, he said that he would like to give more thought to the possibility of discussing the desirability of more active communist trade union interest in the processes of Government with the Chinese on his visit next year. This, I should say, is very much still an open question but he expressed interest in the idea of such a body even if vacancies have to be left for the communist trade unions in case at some future date they wished to participate in the consideration of matters affecting their members.
7. Finally, he thought there was much merit in the proposition that the Hong Kong Trade Unions Ordinance could do with some simplification, particularly given that some of the requirements of the law (e.g. the amalgamation of trade unions) were rather more restrictive in letter and in theory than in practice. He saw no objection to this matter being explored in correspondence between the Overseas Labour Adviser and your Labour Commissioner.
8.
Once again, Mr Callaghan paid a warm tribute to your administration of the Colony and expressed hi appreciation of the various measures for social and other reform that you have introduced. A great deal of good has been done by the careful and informative answers to Parliamentary Questions and by the frequent meetings with Members to improve their understanding of the Colony's progress: But with the risk of continuing sniping in Parliament, in the NEC and in the TUC, he obviously feels there is a need to demonstrate that adequate attention is being paid to the points made above. He has asked for an interim reply to be sent to the NEC on these matters in as positive terms as possible and for us to obtain your views so that a more substantive reply can be sent in due course. here is much food for thought here but we have a couple of months in hand for you to mull all this over and send us your views. He would like us to aim at a further meeting with the NEC to discuss these matters, however, perhaps about mid- October. Meanwhile he is reminding the NEC of your offer to meet members of the Labour Party to brief them on Hong Kong affairs generally.
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