TOP SECRET
Page 178
Page 178
past Governors to the well-being of the inhabitants, and the efficiency and determination of Hong Kong officials, is often overlooked by the critics who perhaps have failed to appreciate the scale of the problems to be faced.
24. Despite the difficulties Hong Kong has since 1954
housed 1.95 million of its inhabitants in subsidised
public housing and introduced cheap medical services, public assistance and universal primary education. These policies have, of necessity, been largely reactive rather than coherent, improvised against a background of local opposition to measures thought to erode Hong Kong's competitive position and restricted for most of the time by a lack of economic resources but also, in the sixties especially, by over-rigid economic orthodoxy which is only now being questioned.
25. It is widely believed in Hong Kong that under the present Governor Hong Kong's social programmes have been greatly accelerated and his commitment to social reform is accepted even by influential critics in the United Kingdom. Some of the recent progress is attributable to the Government's greater financial resources but perhaps his major success has been in harnessing widespread public support for long-term and coherent plans for social progress which is overcoming those sections of influential opinion resistant to change. The plans, announced in 1974, have suffered some delay due to the economic recession and the consequent weakening of the fiscal base but there is reason to hope that with the upturn in the economy and the forthcoming tax increases, the momentum will again pick up.
Without increased momentum there is a danger
that eg the housing record will not show much improvement in numbers over the previous ten-year period even though the quality will be better.
26. The Government's long-term plans are concentrated
in four main areas:
7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Page 178
/(a)
14
Page 178
Page 178
TOP SECRET
7386 D073815 140M 5/74 Cr.P.C. Gp.839/3
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
TOP SECRET