CODE 18 - 77
Reference
SECKET
N thousing Quang 11 Huch you
82415
Mr Qu
ill
VISIT TO HONG KONG : MISCELLANEOUS POINTS
Greater Democracy
Акковы
25 MAY 1978
U OF INVEX
No b
1. I learnt from David Wilson that the Governor has given instructions to senior officers in the Hong Kong Government to look for candidates from outside the normal establishment for some of the second tier Government Committees. The objective is to bring on candidates who could eventually take their place on LegCo. While this is a worthwhile scheme, and I am convinced that it is being done with reasonable enthusiasm, it will obviously take some years to show any striking results.
2. A number of people to whom I spoke were extremely scornful of the value of UrbCo. Only one, however, Peter Johnson, came up with any concrete suggestion as to ways in which UrbCo could be made more effective. He proposed that voting should be by constituency which would hopefully lead to a greater feeling of Community spirit and therefore a greater degree of public interest and involvement.
Organisation of Government
3. When talking to Hugh Ardley I tried, without much success, to make clear in my own mind the formal structure of the Government machinery. One point did become clear, however, and that is that there are those in the Hong Kong Government who would prefer that when we write on matters of policy, if the letter is addressed to the Secretariat Branch, a copy should be sent to the relevant department vice-versa.
zor
The Budget
4. Following so soon on the heels of Michael Stewart, I made no real effort to discuss financial or economic affairs. However, during the conversation with Hugh Ardley he put across very strongly the point that, when the budget is being drawn up, Finance Branch follow the individual budgets laid down by departments for those new areas of expenditure which have already been accepted as Government policy. It is only on policies which may be desirable but have not been either considered essential or yet formally taken into the Government programme that the Financial Secretary exercises any real control.
Future of Hong Kong
5. I was very struck by how many people, both in and out of Government, were eager to discuss this question. No-one pretended to come up with any real solution as what will happen after 1997 but there was an obvious awareness that something will have to be arranged within the next 5 years, the deadline was given me by a number of people In their