9.
8.
noticeably began to decline. We are making
no claim of victory, and the unremitting efforts
to organise the population, police and public
service to eradicate these endemic diseases
will continue remorselessly, but I think
that 1976 proved that we are on the right
lines. There is no problem in which the
credit of the Government with the population
is so deeply involved and it remains my top
priority.
There has been a predictable backlash
to our new emphasis on social and labour legislation
announced in my statement of policy in October.
While this was received with the normal respectful
if rather muted applause, by December a combination
of business interests (notably unsupported by the
larger firms but strongly supported by the communists,
the Poujadist centre and the extreme right) was in
full cry alleging UK pressure to adopt UK models,
aimed not at benefiting Hong Kong workers, but at
eliminating Hong Kong competition and destroying the
Colony. The problem has been compounded by
coincidental irritants such as reaction to gradual
rises in the excessively low rents in Government
housing estates, and by a steep rise in the assessed
value of property and the prospect of a sharp increase