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Mr puffy
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HONG KONG: CHILD LABOUR: LETTER FROM MR WILLIAM RODGERS MP
1.
Please see the letter of 1 March from Mr William Rodgers' Secretary to Mr Dell about child labour in Hong Kong which, like others on the same subject, has been passed to the FCO for reply, this time by the Secretary of State himself.
2. Mr Rodgers, the Secretary of State for Transport, is the MP for Teesside, Stockton. You and Mr David have already dealt with letters from the Stockton Trades Council to the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State; it is now the turn, apparently, of the constituency Labour Party in Stockton to raise the issue of child labour.
3. There is material for a reply to Mr Rodgers' Secretary in the form, as you will see, of a Note for her Minister to use with the Stockton Labour Party,in Lord Goronwy-Roberts' letters of 2 and 10 February to Mr Dempsey MP and Mr Jack Ashley MP respectively. Since the Secretary of State is to reply, however, I think we need a submission dealing with the "World in Action" programme (my submission of ?21 December will help) and the child labour situation in Hong Kong. We should bear in mind that Mr Rodgers showed himself to be sympathetic to Hong Kong and its problems during the negotiations for the Defence Costs Agreement in late 1975, on which, as Minister of State for Defence, he led for the UK side.
Copror alad
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D.F. Milton
D F Milton
Hong Kong Department
9 March 1977
Mr. Fraujant
1
7°
A
Drift submission and draftingly attached.
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