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(b) that the Hong Kong Government was, in this area
of air safety, moving as fast as political
constraints allowed.
8. I would not be worried about safety at Kai Tak if my estimate of the political contraints governing the Hong Kong Government's policy in this field exactly matched that of the policy-makers; but it does not. I believe that these constraints are looser than they are held to be. What are they?
(a) There is only one political organisation within
(b)
the City, the Kowloon Walled City Kaifong Welfare Promotion Committee. Despite the fact that this Committee is riven by leadership disputes and that it has the sympathy of only one-third of the City's residents, it is politically highly significant in that it has the recognition of the New China News Agency. Its activities can thus be and are occasionally moded by policy directives from the Peking Government. In return for this attentiveness, it expects and occasionally gets Peking's support. The view of the average Chinese man in the Walled City if there is one - is that the Walled City is under Chinese rather than British jurisdiction. Should it seem likely that the Hong Kong Government was about to interfere in affairs inside the Walled City, and in a way detrimental to the Committee's interests, the support for the Kaifong Committee would undoubtedly grow and the Committee itself would look to the Peking Government for help;
the extent to which the Peking Government would lend their support to the Kaifong Committee would, in my view, vary from case to case and depend very much upon whether that Government considered its prestige to be involved or not. In general it is in mainland Chinese interests that Anglo-Chinese relations over Hong Kong are kept as quiet as possible. (Indeed, when the Hong Kong Government took action in 1973 to demolish two multi-storeyed buildings at the periphery of the Walled City, Peking sent an NCNA representative to instruct the Kaifong Committee to keep out of the matter.) But if Peking did intervene - and the issue would have to be a big one then there is a danger that a governmental confrontation might develop;
(c) any solution to the problem posed by over-height
buildings in the Walled City could be a fairly expensive one. It was estimated in September last year that simply to pay compensation for those residents in the Walled City whose flats would be destroyed in any reduction would amount to a minimum of HK $2 million and other costs (e.g. rehousing)
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/would