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In Hong Kong no objection is raised to an influx of financial capital because it is recognised that this raises productivity and thereby enhances the standard of living. Why should objections now be raised to an influx of human capital? Surely freedom of movement of both capital resources and labour resources are in the best interests of the people of Hong Kong.
Living there, as I do, I know that there is no shortage of land for development and the major impediment in the way of new industry is the rapidly rising level of wages and demand for labour within the colony.
It is, therefore, possibly not correct to say, as some have suggested, that the present influx of refugees threatens the standard of living which Hong Kong has attained.
It would be more correct to say that that standard of living would indeed be threatened if Hong Kong's free market economy were to be substituted by a regime where government direction of capital or labour assumed the main thrust.
Thus it is that concern for the plight of the many Vietnamese boat people can properly be combined with a bullish view of the impact of so much additional productive labour for the Hong Kong economy, if they were allowed to come in and if the government would release more land for them to be accomodated.
I am aware of the enormous calls on your time which the burden of office must have placed in these early months of what we must all hope is the longest administration in British political history. I am only bothering you because I happen to be one of your constituents. I am home from Hong Kong for the whole month of July and would like to make myself available at any time if I can contribute in any way to alleviate the present terrible position that the Vietnamese refugees find themselves in, and help them to find permanent homes in the colony. This can only be achieved if the other side of the coin - the arguments admitting of free movement of human resources as well as capital resources - can be put over to those in authority.
Yours sincerely,
Richard Shor
RC Thornton
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