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medical and health. On social welfare the
payments side was satisfactory and the next targets
A
were preventive services for youth and rehabilitation services for the disabled. provident fund was not envisaged and a home purchase scheme was already under consideration in another context. Perhaps the most vulnerable field was labour legislation and here the aim was to bring Hong Kong up to the highest comparable
· Asian standards within the next two or three
years in terms of holidays and leave, safety regulations, sickness benefits, improvements to severance pay and trade union legislation.
4.
H.E. said that it had simply not been
possible to find an independent trade union
candidate for the Legislative Council.
Mr.
Youde had agreed that there would be no objection
to discussing with NCNA the possibility of appointing
a well-known trades unionist who had past KMT
affiliations.
However he had subsequently
been denounced in the Ta King Pao as a soviet agent. The only faintly suitable candidate would
be tried on the Labour Advisory Board in the
first instance and was a possible in the long term.
Mr. Cortazzi explained the origins
5.
and purpose of the planning paper.
The Political
Advisers to the S of S took seriously the recent
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pressure on Ministers about Hong Kong.