TNAG-0332-FCO40-368-Visits-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Af-1972 — Page 33

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Oral Answers

6 MARCH 1972

an Act of Parliament which dealt with the Gibraltar constitution and that Her Majesty's Government would not agrze to the people of Gibraltar passing under the sovereignty of any other State against their freely and democratically expressed wishes.

Mr. Roy Hughes: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that some of us are not happy about his junketings with Fascist Ministers in Spain, and does he appreciate that any deal he night make which would sell out the independence of Gibraltar without the express wish of the Gibraltarians would be very much resented by many people in this country?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home: I have just told my hon. Friend the Member for Wor- cestershire, South (Sir G. Naburro) what I said to the Spanish Government. I do not like it when nations adopt rigid posi- tions and refuse to talk to each other. I am prepared to go to talk to the Spani- ards. I hope that the Spanish Foreign Minister will return here and that we shall continue our discussions in London.

Sir G. Nabarro: A splendid reply.

Hong Kong

15. Mr. Blaker asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will make a statement about his recent official visit to Hong Kong.

Sir Alec Douglas-Home: I had wide. ranging discussions with the Governor and the members of the Executive and Legislative Councils. I was also able to meet businessmen, industrialists and other leading members of the community. I was filed with admiration at Hong Kong's achievements which are remark able by any standards.

Mr. Blaker: While I welcome my right hon. Friend's remarks, may I ask him whether he is aware that one of the wishes of the people of Hong Kong at present is that their export market should not be progressively closed to them and that in the forthcoming negotiations in the con- text of the enlarged Community about the generalised preference scheme and about textiles, Her Majesty's Government will see to it that Hong Kong has fair access? Was my right hon. Friend able

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to give the people of Hong Kong any assurance on the score?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home: The generai assurance that one can give to the people of Hong Kong on this count is that they will have an advocate inside the councils of the Community. Agreement was reached that Hong Kong should be in- cluded in the Community's generalised preference scheme. We are pressing now for Hong Kong's inclusion in the generalised preference scheines of other donor countries, notably those of America, Japan and Denmark.

Mr. Orme: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that in Lancashire, not just in tex- tiles but in other industry, there is con- cern about the low wages paid in Hong Kong and about the effect that these have on our own industry? While indus- trialists and trade unionists in Lancashire are not opposed to Hong Kong and while they realise that Hong Kong has to export, did the right hon Gentleman have any discussions about conditions of of work and about trade union organisa- tion, bearing in mind that Hong Kong is still a British colony?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home: Yes. Sir. We had talks about the whole range of in- dustry, including textiles and conditions of work. These are sensitives matters. If the hon. Gentleman wished to put down a specific Question, I should of course be prepared to answer it.

Sir J. Langford-Holt: Does not my right hon. Friend agree that in recent years working conditions in Hong Kong have been improving at a rapid rate which bears comparison with any other nation in the world, and that some of the examples would hear comparison with anything that we have in this country?

Sir Alec Douglas-Home: That is true. I was able to tour some of the more recently built housing estates. The num ber of people involved and the standards in which they have been housed represent a most remarkable achievement of the ingenuity of man.

Mr. Lamond: Does not the right hon. Gentleman realise, despite the improve- ments which have taken place in wages in the textile industry in Hong Kong, that a recent answer given in this House showed that average wages are still less

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