sary, since China has offered Hong Kong all the water it needs on much more favourable terms). The latest big project is an underground railway, tentatively budgeted at £800m. This, it is hoped, will relieve congestion in the Hong Kong- Kowloon area. The main contracts for this have gone to a Jardines-led consortium all of whose other members are Japanese (this is, incidentally, the biggest consor- tium of Japanese companies ever formed). These public works projects (some of which, of course, are advantageous) also function as a means of redistributing part of the Colony's huge budget surplus to favoured businesses, and it needs little study to note the contrast between the lavish expenditures on these projects (the cross- harbour tunnel contractors, for example, were allowed to set tolls which brought them back their money in 3 years) and the régime's niggardly expenditure on social services.
Hong Kong's Attractions
The Colony's attractiveness for foreign business becomes clear if one examines the favourable conditions created by the colonial régime.
First, apart from the ban on political parties, trade unions are also subjected to
24
How the Government Promotes Exploitation
In Hong Kong there is:
No minimum wage
No paid maternity leave
No maximum hours of work for males over 18
No sickness benefits
No unemployment insurance
No insurance provisions for widows with young
children
No medical treatment free for all
No compulsory education
In 1968-69 there were nine government employees to check all complaints about industrial payments disputes
In 1971 the Census showed that 174,439 workers were working at least 75 hours per week - and 13,792 of these were working at least 105 hours per week
In 1971 there were about 36,000 children aged 10-14 working legally, and very probably several thousand others working illegally
In 1974 less than one-third of the ILO Conventions which the British Govern- ment had ratified for the U.K. had been ratified by the British Government for Hong Kong.
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