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{
•
they would be drawn from the independent trade unions
rather from the larger politically orientated
organisations.
Viewed from here, it would be desirable
for the Governor to appoint such a figure when
appointments are next made. This is an immediate
problem but it illustrates the more general difficulty
of the representation of the wage-earning population
on the Council. While the Governor is fully aware
of the value to the Secretary of State of such an
appointment, the difficulties of finding a suitable
or even credible figure from the very small number of
independent unionists in Hong Kong are obvious (see
paragraph above). Balancing these two views
is difficult and will require a decision by Ministers: but a possible solution to the immediate 'difficulty
might be a personality so closely, publicly and
personally associated with efforts to improve indus-
trial working conditions to dispose of criticism that
there is no spokesman for workers' interests in the
Council. In the longer term there should be scope
for appointments of persons with a background in the
trade unions but care would need to be taken to avoid
giving the Chinese the impression that we were seeking to undermine their own Communist unions who can be expected to continue to boycott participation in Hong
Kong Government activity at any level. The more
promising approach would be actively to groom possible
candidates through legally accepted progression of
2
servier
public sexVeys for services on advisory committees. The Turner study of Labour Relations referred to in
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/paragraph
Public Services
Umin's
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NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARCIN
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