7,51
1 4 MAY 1976
CONFIDENTIAL
Copylo
Exter
Mr Male
(97)
An 1945
Ms Mate
Mr. 915
Mallico Mr Duffy
18/11. Min
My Samp
Da
Mr O'Keeffe
HKIOD
(K 243)
Whethe
+ che fact
145
Economist's
1. The Secretary of State had a successful talk with the Governor of Hong Kong; but the broad outlines of a meeting between Mr Alan Donald and members of our party (myself, Mr Crowe, Mr Weston, Mr Whyte) on 3 May simultaneously with the Secretary of State's meeting may be interesting, as illustrating the kind of pressures which the Governor has to face.
2.
a.
b.
Leges in abeady bi-lingual.
c.
3.
Mr Donald made the following points:
The Chinese Government would oppose increases in public expenditure financed by taxes on working people or on the corporations (as many of these were Chinese owned). This position was being reflected in local Communist propaganda. He did not say whether the same considerations would apply to increases in expenditure financed by heavier taxation of the better
off.
It
There was no local pressure for widening the LegCo; people were quite happy with the present system. The Administration was well informed of local feeling through the system of street representatives. would be difficult to find a Trade Unionist who was not either a Communist or KMT member. A LegCo of 50 was too large, and a multilingual LegCo would be difficult to run. Even if there was no immediate reaction to any constitutional change from Peking, the dangers from that quarter in the long run were real
ones.
The Colony had progressed very rapidly over the past three years.
The Administration could not understand the pressures in the UK which presumably came from elements on the far left. The far-reaching nature of the Office's proposals for future policy towards the Colony had come as a surprise.
We explained that the pressures were by no means wholly from the left. Those concerned included the moderate TUC International Committee. Ministers certainly did not regard the Office paper on Hong Kong as extreme, but rather as a minimum first step.
David Lipsy
David Lipsey Political Adviser
13 May 1976
c.c.
Mr Cortazzi 0.r.
CONFIDENTIAL