HWB 18/65
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CONFIDENTIAL
SAVING DESPATCH
From the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Affairs
To he Officer Administering the Government of HONG KONG
Date 28 tharch 1968
No. 216 Saving
Your telegram No.149
Heung Yee Kuk delegation
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The delegation had a brief meeting with the Secretary of State on 21 February, followed the same day by a meeting with the Minister of State, Lord Shepherd. The latter meeting was continued during the evening of the following day. During these meetings the delegation presented memoranda to the Secretary of State and to the Minister: copies of these memoranda are enclosed. Both Ministers informed the delegation that they would give careful consideration to the points raised in the memoranda and that you would be asked to convey their reply in the usual manner.
2. A copy is also enclosed of a record of the second meeting with Lord Shepherd: this record was taken by Mr.K.Y. Yeung at the request of the delegation and it is understood that copies of it have been sent to the delegation by your London Office. It is not an official record (no official record was taken since the meeting was informal), but it is in the main, an accurate one although it attributes certain words to the Minister which he did not in fact use. We should wish to be consulted if there were any question of the record being used or regarded as an official one.
3. We have the following comments and suggestions for reply on the points raised in the memoranda:-
(i) Immigration (employment voucher system)
You will have seen the statement made by the Minister of Labour in Parliament on 26 February in the form of a written reply to a Parliamentary question on this subject. The statement sets out the new arrangements for the allocation of employment vouchers for Commonwealth immigrants to this country. Hong Kong should benefit from the new arrangements insofar as:-
(a) the new criteria for Category A vouchers will not apply
to the dependent territories, and
(b) there is to be a separate quota of 600 employment vouchers
per annum allocated specifically for applicants from dependent territories, with the proviso that as a general rule no one territory may receive more than 50% of the quota.
These arrangements are not affected in any way by the Commonwealth Immigrants Act of 1968. A reply might be based on these developments, which were announced after the delegation saw the Ministers.
(ii) A. Recreational facilities in Britain
B. Education of Chinese children in Britain in the Chinese
language
/We
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