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REVISION OF SECTION V AND VI OF THE HONG KONG
PLANNING PAPER
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V.
INTERNAL POLICY
20. On the above assumption, HMG will continue to be constitutionally responsible for Hong Kong for some tim to come. In discharging this responsibility we must aim at an administration in Hong Kong which reconciles as far as possible four rather different requirements:-
a The Secretary of State must be able to point to action which meets reasonable criticism from Parliament, the Labour Party and the TUC;
but cater less he
21..
(b)
(c)
(a)
the material and social well-being of the people of Hong Kong must be advanced as far as possible;
a maximum degree of economic progress and tranquility in the Colony, and international respect for it, must be achieved during the run-up to the proposed attempt to negotiate about its future with the Chinese in the mid-1980's;
the Chinese must not be given grounds for believing that we are attempting to disturb their interests in Hong Kong by changes in the basic political and economic characterist of the Colony to which they have become accustomed or which are of importance to them or their followers; a consideration of particular force in the period of uncertainty which has begun in China.
This is
The most obvious field where these requirements can be and should be met is that of industrial legislat. In the absence of a normal Trades Union movement, there is a particular obligation on the Hong Kong Government to safeguard the position of wage earners by providing progressive labour legislation, with a strong Commissio of Labour's office and effective conciliation and facto inspectorate ofiogs. The objectivPagh87f 2003 to
/achieve
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