TNAG-0485-FCO40-550-UK-publications-on-labour-and-social-conditions-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 26

RESTRICTED

3.

:

2.

History

The section concerned with the history of Hong Kong was perhaps written by alter Easey (the bibliography says "much of the best source on Hong Kong's history is Walter Easey,

'History of Hong Kong to 1945' in Association for Radical East Asian Studies; the section on history is essentially, a precis of Easey's essay"). It is a piece of writing which makes no effort to conceal a Larxist flavour. It contains expressions such as "a classic, colonial regime", "vigorous repression of the working class", "the Chinese proletariat", "class struggle" "workers' victory", all these being used in one paragraph (page 10). Typical others are "the evident self-serving nature of British colonialism", "European ruling clique" and "the old colonial set-up".

3.

Administration of Hong Kong

This section begins by saying that

"According to local legend, Hong Kong is run by the Jockey Club, the Hong Kong Bank, Jardines and The Governor in that order. The writers go on, "This is probably more or less correct, certainly the local business community has more power than the Governor."

It leads with a quotation of John Rear's "Hong Kong is not a democracy, and contains many factual errors which the writer could have checked had he wished.

#1

"Taxation is lopsidedly geared to favour the wealthy. The courts are conducted in English yet only a tiny percentage of the population has a working knowledge of the language..."

the only things which count are money and power. The police force is notoriously corrupt as the case of Joseph (sic) Godber so clamorously revealed in 1973..." "The regime's last fallback position is the specious argument that China would frown on steps towards some democratisation in the Colony. There is nothing to support such an argument.

The Marxist terms continue throughout this section. "Whenever the prolitariat struggled for its rights, the regime launched its forces against it, as in 1925-26.'

It goes on to expound that "the regime's apparatus

of repression are the police and the army.

#!

#

the administration relies heavily not only on excluding the population from a say in how it is governed, but also on force and violence of many kinds."

RESTRICTED