CONFIDENTIAL
John Lyttle Esq
Department of Education & Science
Elizabeth House
York Road
LONDON SE1 7PH
1.
D Lipsey
Thank you for your letter of 16 September and the copy of one which Mrs Williams has received from
Mrs Susan Yuen in Hong Kong.
2. Mrs Yuen refers in her letter to signs that Whitehall is endeavouring to exercise tighter controls over Hong Kong, and deplores this development. The position is as follows. Both Mr Callaghan, when he was Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary, and Mr Crosland, have taken the view that there can be no basic change in the relationship between the UK and Hong Kong, and all is not well with Hong Kong. However, while recognising the considerable progress that has been made in improving social and labour conditions in Hong Kong, particularly during the period of office of the present Governor, Sir Murray MacLehose, Ministers have come to the conclusion that Hong Kong's continuing economic prosperity, halted only temporarily by the recession in 1973/4, should make it possible to achieve a substantial move forward. With this in view, there have been continuing discussions over the past months between the FCO, at both ministerial and official level, and the Governor of Hong Kong on a new programme of social reforms. It has been agreed that the aim should be to raise standards in Hong Kong to a level comparable to the best equivalent elsewhere in Asia (with
The the exception of Japan, which is a special case). Governor will be announcing the new programme of measurees, designed to achieve this objective over the next five years, at the opening of the next session of the Legislative Council in October. If the new programme is to be
acceptable to public opinion in Hong Kong, it is most important that it should be seen to be in the best
interests of the population there and not the result of a diktat from Whitehall.
CONFIDENTIAL
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