Mr Murray
***
Original at: HKK 2801.
HKK 280/1.
This Copy for:
Information only / Action on
Para(s)
Ник
HILR 360/2
Mc. 51
18 OCT 1979
Mo
117
HONG KONG: LETTER FROM MR FRANCIS EDDIS
Problem
1. To reply to a letter to Mr Blaker from Mr Francis Eddis,
a barrister in Hong Kong, in which he raises points on compensation
for land resumptions and fees for attendance at English Schools in
Hong Kong.
Recommendation
2.
Unless the Minister of State particularly wishes to reply to
Mr Eddis himself, I recommend that his Private Secretary should
do so along the lines of the attached draft.
Background
3. There is no need for the Minister to read the lengthy and
somewhat obscure enclosures to Mr Eddis's letter. He is
complaining
(a) about the inadequacy of the compensation offerred to
those whose homes or businesses are taken over to
make way for public works projects;
(b) about the so-called "parity of subsidy" system under
which the Hong Kong Government pay the same amount
per pupil to all Government subsidised schools, with
the result that, while pupils in the schools for local
children (where instruction is normally in Cantonese)
are now receiving free education up to the age of 15,
pupils who do not speak Cantonese are still having to
pay substantial (and indeed steeply increasing) fees,
since "English" schools are much more expensive to run.
14.