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4.
It is of course common ground that social jus- tice is inherently a good which any government should seek; that if there is not a greater degree of social
justice in Hong Kong there is a danger that discontent could arise making for instability and difficulties with China; and that social progress may strengthen our ability to work out an arrangement for Hong Kong with China in due course. We also believe that our international repute will be damaged if social standards in Hong Kong are seen to be behind those in more advanced areas in the Far East and South East Asia; and that more Parliamentary and political attention will come to be focussed on ilong Kong as its position comes to appear more anomalous as other and less economically advanced dependent territories achieve independence. not believe the latter to be a temporary phenomenon and we are advised by Tom McNally that it is clearly right to try to anticipate trouble by timely reform now rather than merely to respond to political pressures here as and when they arise.
We do
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5.
Against this background, the Planning Paper projects somewhat more ambitious internal policies for Hong Kong and suggests ways and means for implementing them. Obviously there is ground for argument on all these matters; but I am sure that we all need carefully to consider the issues if we are to get the balance right. I, incidentally, have no reason to believe that any discussions we have, if you return home, will be anything but temperate.
But you may be sure that Lord Goronwy-Roberts and Tom McNally are being fully consulted at all stages.
6.
Finally, as the Department take every opportunity to remind us, there is the fundamental question of the degree to which any of the measures proposed in the Planning Paper can be implemented given the wide differences of social outlook between Ministers here on the one hand and some of your senior officials and most, I imagine, of your Unofficials on the other. We are certainly not unsympathetic to your difficulties and Ministers have often made it clear that they have every confidence in you personally. The last thing we
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