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75. The final question is: what to do? On this, I naturally have
hesitations: arising from an awareness, on the one hand, of the dangers
of applying standard prescriptions (still more, of applying prescriptions
derived from old-established industrial societies) to societies which
are only superficially similar in their level of development; and from
(on the other hand) the specific political and cultural complexities of
the socio-economy of Hong Kong.
76. At the moment, I would confine myself to two broad clusters of
observations, more-or-less tentative and (to return to my starting
point) more or less "interim". One is that one cannot limit relevant
comment to industrial relations in the narrow sense. Unlike the
stereotype with which we were first presented, the Hong Kong worker
has wider preoccupations.
77. Thus, and emphatically, more progress is required on the social
front. Our survey of employee attitudes suggests there would be very
wide support for two measures:
(a)
(b)
A social security scheme which was linked in some way (as
I gather has recently been done in Singapore) with the
acquisition of accommodation rights. For instance, one
in which workers', employers' and official contributions
were, after a period of accumulation, acceptable as the
deposit on personal purchase of publicly-constructed
housing.
A reform of the educational system, involving not merely
an earlier raising of the school-leaving age, but a
structure in which access to superior educational
opportunities was much less obviously related to "ability
to pay".
I do not myself have any doubt, both that Hong Kong could afford these
things and that they would contribute to its economic efficiency and
social harmony.
78. As regards the question of industrial relations in the narrower
sense, the problem is more difficult. There is clear evidence in our
surveys of workers and employees of a need for change. The dilemma is
that the available trade union movements, majority and minority, will
not or cannot fulfil that need. On the other hand, it is impossible for
the administration to meet it completely (or even go much more than
two-thirds, say of the way); while the alternative, erecting a new
/"neutral"