TNAG-0485-FCO40-550-UK-publications-on-labour-and-social-conditions-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 29

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report which said that the delegates had been inpressed by the cheapness of the rent and that they

"gave credit to Government for concentrating on helping the poorest and the most needy of the population and for being willing to underwrite its cssts, unlike some other Asia countries. appreciated the scale of the problem."

The section goes on,

They also

"The Government is building instant slums, and then proceeds to hawk what it has done, to the people in Hong Kong and the world, as a public housing programme. The housing situation is a major factor in Hong Kong; intolerable living conditions foster despair, crime and narcotics addiction."

Some resettlement blocks (the word 'resettlement' was replaced incidently by 'public housing' when the new Housing Department came into being on 1st April 1973) were built in 1953 and are known as the "Mark 1" blocks. They are now out of date and are being modernised or pulled down. But to maintain that "the government is building instant slums" is to igrom the standards of the latest "Mark 7" blocks which rival anything of their kind in the world today. The whole of this section is made up of selective extracts from various sources and sweeping generalities to suit the writers' purpose. -

6. Hong Kong and Britain

This section is concerned with the reason why Britain has not terminated "its colonial rule over Hong Kong' It stresses that the most important advantage to the U.. has been Hong Kong's contribution to London's financial reserves and to supporting the pound.

"The situation which prevails at the moment could perhaps fairly be summed up as one where there is an (uneven) balance between the general metropolitan move towards decolonization and the desire of the "colonials" as a whole to maintain the colonial set-up.

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The section glosses over Hong Kong achievements in trading and manufacturing and switches the attack to the British Government. The writers conclude that for a long time Hong Kong has been too large an economic asset to be ignored but that

"the ruling group in the Colony by which is meant the (sometimes contradictory and not wholly integrated) alliance between the colonial administration and the capitalist class, both (British) quasi-expatriate and Chinese now enjoys a relative autonomy from London."

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