2.
parking fees, not only because of the effect which this might have on the cost of living but - even more because it is thought to pre-empt the public discussion on transport policy which had been promised before any decisions were taken. The third point of interest is that a number of members stressed the importance of not cutting back on the housing programme in particular and public works in general, while several went further and pressed for, if anything, an increase in the social and welfare services. Views differed on where the money for all this would come from. Some members and some of the press feel that the time has come to go in for a mixture of deficit budgeting and running down the reserves; others would prefer to rely on taxation although there were many differing views on whether this should be achieved by increasing the direct or indirect tax, and perhaps the most common denominator was the insistence that what ever solution was adopted should have regard to the need to continue to attract the oversea investor to liong Kong and to enable the Hong Long entrepreneur to operate oversea. In short nothing very surprising and much of it along the lines that were predictable when I wrote my previous letter.
5. I will send you a similar round-up of the official statements and, of course, notify you at once if there are any significant changes in the budget. If the statements by officials give us any further clues on market pointers or export opportunities we shall, of course, be sending them as well.
6. I am sending copies of this letter and its enclosures to ir stuart and r Kimber. May I leave it to you to decide between yourselves who else should see either the letter or the enclosures and arrange distribution accordingly.
P 3
T Aston
Senior British Trade Commissioner
The heading to my previous letter should, of course, have been Hong Kong Budget 1974 - 1975 (not 1973 - 1974) tempus fugit.
TWA: dh
cc AC Stuart HKIOD
V F Kimber GESB
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