TNAG-0485-FCO40-550-UK-publications-on-labour-and-social-conditions-in-Hong-Kong-1974 — Page 87

CONFIDENTIAL

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Onji

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Mr Foggon

LABOUR AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS IN HONG KONG

1. Thank you for your minute of 12 September. Obviously we are in for increasing pressure from the TUC about the situation in Hong Kong. Not all of this pressure is well informed. In particular as you say, it would be wrong for either the TUC or Members of Parliament to adopt uncritically many of the views in the Trotskyist booklet "Hong Kong: A Case to Answer".

2. I take it that the next stage will still be the discussion in the Overseas Labour Consultative Committee, for which you will be preparing a brief. Mr Hurst told me, and I think you agree, that it should be possible to demonstrate that reasonable progress was being made in Hong Kong on the labour side.

3. The question of the speed of general social progress, as we have also, I think, agreed, is a more difficult one. What is certain is that the present Governor has hurried the pace considerably. It is however true that over the past years social development has been relatively slow by comparison with Britain since the war. Whether, as you suggest, it has been, and is, too slow, I find it difficult to answer as a generalisation. The contexts and the ingredients are very different.

4.

Nevertheless, as a political judgment which is within the competence of this Department, the appoint- ment of an outside review body or Royal Commission would damage the Governor's authority within Hong Kong and thus his power to control the pace of development in the face, as you say, of some formidable opposition. The balance of economic and political confidence in Hong Kong and of the United Kingdom's interest in the future of the Colony is, I am certain, too delicate for such sledgehammer tactics.

5. We thus, in effect, have two choices. The first is to consult with the Governor and agree on the political and economic objectives for the Colony, and then to a large extent to trust his judgment on timing and prioritis This consultation is a continuous process. Important recent examples have been your visit to Hong Kong and Lord Goronwy-Roberts's talks with the Governor. The second choice, if at the end of the day we do not trust the Governor's judgment and decide that the pace of development is too slow, is to find another Governor. I do not believe the latter would, in present circumstances, be in the interests of HMG.

13 September 1974

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Mr Male

Sir D Watson.

CONFIDENTIAL

A C Stuart

PA

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1819

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean

Dept.