CONFIDENT I AL
Finance
groups the Federation of Trade Unions (communist and
Peking controlled) and the Trade Union Council (KMT dominated).
The number of unions sympathetic to the TUC far exceeds
those adhering to the FTU, but both the declared and
estimated paid up membership figures of the TUC are in fact
substantially lower. Only occasionally do these two
bodies and their constituent unions function as effective
industrial organisations and then never in concert since
co-operation between them is out of the question. All
attempts to improve the trade union structure have failed
in spite of the Hong Kong Government's efforts to promote
trade union education and the efforts of some international
trade union organisations.
PUBLIC FINANCE
27.
Hong Kong receives virtually no financial aid from
Her Majesty's Government. Since the end of the last war,
with one or two exceptions, it has run a substantial surplus
on the recurrent budget, from which it has financed its
own development expenditure, which has been on a massive
scale. The housing programme in particular has been an
outstanding success, and has been carried through entirely
from local resources. Aid from the United Kingdom has been
limited to grants towards higher education projects (the
two universities and technical education) and a loan and
grants for the development of Kai Tak airport.
It is a
sore point in Hong Kong that since 1945 we have not felt
able to make regular aid allocations to the Colony.
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