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[Lord Hale.] pound and the Chinese Hong Kong dollar have been floated. The Hong Kong dollar floated upstream, while the pound was sinking. It may very well be that at this moment they find it extremely difficult to compete with Lancashire because of the rise in the value of the
Hong Kong dollar. This is not very meritorious, because we are speaking in the Parliament of the United King- dom, and this represents an accumula tion of mistakes that surely really means disaster. I have heard, too, that the independent committee against corrup- tion, which has now been functioning for two years, is doing its best. It has achieved some major successes, but of course is facing a problem whose roots are so deep and so widespread that the committce cannot hope to succeed wholly in extirpating a corruption which is almost part of the people.
Finally, one should say that there are 10,000 independent small registered businesses in Hong Kong. It is true that there have always been trading nations; the Lombards in the 11th century in France, the Jews, the Indians in Africa, who are now to be replaced by the Kikuyu, I think. They have always been trading races, and very often their econo- mies are based on the family economy. One can work 15 or 16 hours a day if on is working for one's mother, sister, brother and uncle, but it is not so attrac- tive when one is working for a highly paid part-time director. I should have thought that even a Labour Govern- ment would have had sense enough to know that this is not a very good way to start to try to develop an immense -and perhaps too immense-combine.
My Lords, in view of what happened last night I propose to have a little mercy upon the staff and the Members of the House, and to go home to bed rather earlier than I otherwise would-
Baroness ELLES: My Lords, before the noble Lord sits down, I wish to point out that he misquoted me on at least two or three occasions. I ask him to do me the courtesy of reading in the Official Report tomorrow exactly what I said. I will not take up the time of the House now in correcting every state- ment, but I ask the noble Lord to look in the Official Report to see what I said.
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Lord HALE: Most certainly, my Lords.
7.29 p.m.
Baroness VICKERS: My Lords, I am Sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, is not here because I have often taken part with him on occasions such as this, and very often we had some sympathy with each other in what we had to say. But this evening I regret that I have not any sympathy with what he said, because I believe that he has given a picture which is not the realistic picture of Hong Kong. I had the oppor- tunity of going there in 1946, and I have been several times since. I must say that it is quite amazing what has happened to the island, and how it has revitalised itself. I think we can say that a really excellent job has been done -all the people working together. I have also lived in Indonesia and in Malaysia for considerable periods, and I therefore have the greatest respect for the Chinese people. We have to remember that their civilisation is a great deal older than ours. They have kept their traditions in the many countries in which they have worked, and have successfully contended with all kinds of conditions.
Hong Kong's reaction to the world depression has been no strikes and no serious industrial disputes; and when the shadows of the world recession darkened their nation, groups of workers organised their own internal systems of shared labour and part-time rotation. I should like to quote what they said:
•
"Share the bowl of rice which has temporarily
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and I should like to emphasise the word
temporarily
"
replaced the normal two bowls; don't break the empty one ".
I think this is the way in which they have tackled the crisis at the present time.
Mention has been made of the Chinese extended family system. I think this is admirable: I agree with the noble Lord, Lord Hale, that when you are. working for your family you obviously work harder, ́ ́ and probably better; and, though most of the people work for firms, and so on, they think that they are working for their families, because they are so proud of their children and they want them to have a better future
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