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legislation, recently introduced at the urging of your predecessor in office, granting a right to 4 rest days a month to certain categories of employees. Simple cause and effect should not have had so much influence on prices, but it is understandable that the rises were ascribed to this cause; and that the further effect will be that progress in the field of labour legislation will henceforth be even more difficult to achieve.
Hong Kong, in short, is not a place for quick judgements, or mistakes made with the best of intentions; or window-dressing measures; or the importation of foreign ideas without thought as to their real suitability in our peculiar circumstances: and if we sometimes seem slow to move in various spheres where action may appear, from outside, to be behind-hand, it is by no means because we had not given these matters thought but because we have to act with realism and with care to see that any proposals will actually achieve their aims, and achieve them with the minimum of damaging backlash.
Perhaps I have over-laboured these points, but I did wish to assure you that the public service as a whole here is a forward-thinking and highly professional body, but one which has learned to be cautious. What- ever we do or do not do therefore is fully considered, and we do not omit to study any courses of action which it might be desirable to follow. We do, however, consider that realism in our circumstances is a wiser course in the long run than pursuit of image" abroad:
even though
we have to accept that this philosophy can sometimes expose us to unwelcome criticism.
A further related point is that we have learnt over the years that few things are thought more objectionable here by responsible opinion than the introduction of inappropriate measures on the grounds that
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