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COLONIAL RULE IN HONG KONG
KMT resistance to communist expansion accords ill with their reproach that Hong Kong civil servants do not know Chinese language and customs well enough. This pot-and-kettle remark is belied by a tale told by Dr Miners of how one "mandarin" publicly out-argued a mischievous, venal, geomancer at his own geomancy; anyway, they themselves show little grasp of problems of enforcement in a Chinese community or of the complications of China's political and financial interests in Hong Kong. A great deal of institutional experience lies behind the festina lente characteristic of British colonial administration in economic matters,and few risks can be afforded with the goose that lays the golden eggs, lays them, not only for the City of London, but also for Peking. It is in Peking's politi- cal interest that there should be no devolution of power in Hong Kong and that China should be able always to hold Britain responsible (as t'u-ssu) for what goes on there; whether any devolution proposed were to a parlia- ment or to a TUC would make no difference. China has no cause to welcome a rise in the standards of Hong Kong workers still further above those of workers in Kwang-tung - least of all at any cost to her share of the profits; as Mr England's own evidence shows, Hong Kong workers already do go on strike a lot, and more often than not get advantage from doing so. There have been few colonial regimes in history which did not bring the peoples under them a higher standard of living and greater personal liberty than they enjoyed previously, than they could have enjoyed under any con- temporary alternative, or than they have enjoyed since decolonization; nowhere is that truth more patent than to the masses in Hong Kong.
That is not to say there is not endless room for gradual improvement in Hong Kong, and plenty is being effected all the time slightly more perhaps than Mr England and Professor Rear mention in their up-dating Postscript. But to erode the control of Hong Kong's benevolent despots with the deliberate aim of pricing the Colony's products out of the markets of the responsible "home" country and thus to jeopardize the Colony's delicate economic, social, and political balance of priorities in the interests of capital and labour in Britain, as our opening quotation implied is right and proper, would look on the China coast like the crudest of imperialisms.
REFERENCES
1. That the Chinese Government dors view the relationship in these terms is con- firmed by a report Dr Miners quotes that negotiations for the stationing of a Chinese diplomatic representative in Hong Kong have stalled on disagreement whether he should come under the Ambassador in Latuon (the British idea) or under the provincial government at Canton (the Chinese idea.
2. Very occasional errors (for example over employment of under-age workers or the proceedings of the Labour Tribuna arise from acceptance of local newspaper reporters', or other unofficial informants', statements unchecked.
3. During 1975 China is estimated to have earned from trade with Hong Kong a surplus of foreign exchange of US $1.200 million, to set against deficits with Japan and USA and to help meet her frais diplomatiques, greatly increased since her entry into the UN and newfound "respectability”.