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Mr. Barnes,
The Secretary for Security,
Government Secretariat
Lower Albert Road,
Hong Kong
bea Kr-baine вла
Ниваже
14th March, 1990.
I am sure that there was no discourtesy intended in your (a) not replying personally to my letter nor (b) in the extended delay. I did not in fact write to Mr. Fong because I had hoped that this matter would receive your personal attention.
As to the open drains, of course it would be splendid if excrement and filth did not get into the open surface drains! Mr. Fong's response on this point is therefore ludicrous. Why should the drains not be covered over? The expenditure would be small and the present situation is se noUS, Of course there should be hygiene education for the detainees and cleaning out of the channels - but it is absolutely obvious that this will not suffice. I ask that the matter be looked into once again.
Nor is the answer regarding the toilets in the least satisfactory. The total lack of privacy is inexcusable and the open trough method of disposing of excrement is disgusting the fact that it may be common amonst disadvantaged people in the Far East does not justify it in the slightest.
As for the policy of not teaching foreign languages, Mr. Fong's reply is simply out of date. I have now received a letter saying that the ban on teaching English in the camps will be lifted.
Perhaps you might now care to provide a more satisfactory reply to the matters that I have raised.
I do appreciate the financial and time problems which afflict your staff and yourself at the moment and I am not trying to add to them but I was dismayed and distressed by the letter which you saw fit to arrange for Mr. Fong to send to me.
I am sending a copy of Mr. Fong's letter and of this reply to the Governor of Hong Kong and to the Foreign Secretary.
Have Sencerely
HOUSE OF COMMONS, LONDON, SWIA OAA