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quinquennium. This would amount to only a slight reduction in the
programme.
12. If a further reduction were thought desirable, we could keep the annual costs for 1979/81 at £700,000 and restrict the build-up in 1980/81 and subsequent years to provide for increases in respect of representation in Peking and administrative costs of Chinese students in the UK only. This would ensure a quantitative benefit which might help presentationally, since for the cost of subsidising
one British teacher in China we can administer 40 Chinese students in
the United Kingdom. This would cost £380,000 in 1979/80; but only £540,000 (rather than £900,000) in 1980/81.
13. Whichever of the above 3 options we adopt we should have to seek additional money for China. We consider that, like the Chinese, we
should see this exercise in political terms. As the Minister of State has said, what is at issue is not a little extra for a cultural programme with a small under-developed country, but a substantial effort to influence the development of a major world power. New money for the British Council through the FCC Information Vote would be justified but because of the present restrictions on Government expenditure the prospect of obtaining an increase in the FCC's PESC allocation is unlikely.
14. The Council has had no additional FCO funds since 1971 and has
had to implement its share of a number of public expenditure cuts between 1974-77, involving withdrawals from Latin America, the
Caribbean and Switzerland. In recent years they have responded to changes in political circumstances by opening new posts in Syria, the Philippines, Burma, Costa Rica and Ecuador by redeployment of existing resources. We are still pressing them to make possible further initiatives from existing resources, eg South Africa, Angola, Namibia. As stated above, the Council have found £320,000 FCC funds in 1979/80 and future years for a China programme, but could only provide the further sums acquired by imposing substantial cuts in existing programmes, including withdrawal from a number of countries. Furthermore, the Council regard this as a British rather than a British Council problem since they do not normally subsidise other
/country's
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