CONFIDENTIAL
Flag Ai(3)
সু
(a)
(e)
considered that the prospects were good for securing an expert of the type he required, on secondment from the staff of that Department.
Mr. G. T. Rowe, the Director of Social Welfare, then came
on leave and discussed the proposal with the Department of
Health and Security.
As a result of those discussions, involving the preparation
of a job description and other incidental matters,
Mr. Heppell of the Department of Health and Social
Security, went to Hong Kong last January and spent a month
there. He seems to have done a first-class job, judging
from Hong Kong saving despatch No. 385.
(f) It was then estimated that the revised Public Assistance
scheme would cost HK$20 m. in its first full year of
operation. The existing plan is based largely on the distribution of food to needy families. The revised plan
Hag 9 (8)
provides for cash payments and the maintenance of a minimum income level depending upon the size of the family.
In his telegram No.396 of 20 June the Governor said that it was hoped to have local staff recruited and trained and ready to operate the initial stages of a new expanded scheme towards the end of the year. He went on to ask if they could have the further assistance of Mr. Heppell for a period of about a year to assist the Government in
getting the new scheme off the ground. We sent off a reply to that telegram last week, saying that Mr. Heppell was willing to be considered for a year's secondment to
the Hong Kong Government. The details of the secondment
have still to be worked out.
3. You will see from the above short history of the matter that the Governor might have created the impression that the new Public Assistance scheme would be in operation by, at the latest, February
1970. While it is clear that no firm undertaking has ever been given, it is equally clear that the Hong Kong Government seem to have run into difficulties in translating their ideas into action.
20 July, 1970
EMain
(E. o. Laird)
Hong Kong Department. CONFIDENTIAL
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