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Would there be any advantage at all in bringing in one from overseas in this?
A. I am really not going to comment on this at all.
Q. Sir will the report be published?
A. The constitutional position is that the report is to the Governor-in-Council.
The G in C will take the advice of Counsel. But it seems to me that, having
made that constitutional point, it is inconceivable that an enquiry set up to establish the facts set out the facts, and get hearing for them, would not be published.
gilegal pansporting
Concerning the problem of Illegal Immigrants.
present situation?
Are you satisfied with the
A. No I am certainly not. The level of Illegal Immigrants remains far too high.
In the last two months the number of arrests have been about 8 000 and I would
have thought about that number have also got through. On present forecasts that is assuming there is no major increase, and that is rather an optimistic
assumption, assuming there is no major increase this year we will receive into
our community about 70 000 by illegal immigration. When you add to that about
50 000 by legal immigration put that on top of 180 000 we had last year these figures are quite alarming. Since January 1978 I think we have gained something like 340 000 by migration. These are quite awe inspiring figures.
Q. Do you think that the Government are trying their best?
A. Well, these measures are joint between the Chinese and HK Governments, and its
very noticeable how measures on both sides of the border have improved over
the last year.
The evasion rate has come down. We reckon about a year ago or
a bit over a year ago three to 1, it's now 1 to 1 and this is the result in
great improvement in the techniques applied on our side of the border. We
know that the Chinese security forces are arresting far more people than we do. I would have thought that of people leaving communes to attempt to get to HK I should
be very surprised if say more than 1 in 6 gets through, so this suggests that
increasingly effective measures have been taken. On the other hand it does
indicate the very large number who are on the move and want to get here.
We are
still getting as many as 70 000 so this is something about which we are not at
all complacent and take seriously, so do the Chinese authorities.
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