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existing accommodation for those in more need. With these measures
to ease the financial constraints it should be possible to reconsider housing standards. This task will need to be undertaken urgently if any results are to be expected in the early 1980s.
14. Educational standards in the Colony will clearly have to continue to improve, partly in response to popular demand and partly in support of an increasingly sophisticated economy where industry is moving up the technical ladder. There is now full free provision at the primary level (albeit on a bi-sessional basis which is popular locally); and there is provision in the estimates for a rise in expenditure of 37% by 1979/80 largely to meet expansion in the secondary and tertiary sectors (details in Annex D). It is difficult to see how, even given greater financial resources, this target could be improved upon, but obviously plans will be needed for further expansion in the early 1980s. These plans will presumably be prepared well in advance of 1 January 1979: it would be useful to have the projections in London by that date.
15. Present medical provision in Hong Kong, coupled with the plans for the future (see Annex D), clearly made improved medical care of lower priority. It is of interest that Hong Kong compares exceptionally well in this field with Singapore The number of hospital beds per thousand of population is 25% higher in the Colony than in Singapore; and this discrepancy looks likely to increase over the next four years. Hong Kong charges for medical services are nominal and indeed only a quarter of the equivalent
charges in Singapore; and life expectancy is considerably higher. Only in the proportion of the number of people per physician is Singapore apparently in advance of Hong Kong (1,400 as opposed to 1,560) but the difference is marginal and even this may be rectified
with the opening of the new medical school in Hong Kong.
Institutions
16.
Further social progress in Hong Kong will depend on public support for the necessary legislation and higher taxation. The normal method for mobilising this through democratic representative institutions is precluded in the case of Hong Kong. China's
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