CONFIDENTIAL
years would call for more taxation, but he re-emphasised that there was a limit to tax levels because of the political uncertainty about the future of the colony. Mr Rowlands asked whether it was true that
when things became tight economically the social programmes were the first to suffer. The Governor felt that this was not true and that the social programmes had been maintained during the recession. For example, the housing programme had continued to expand. Three years ago the rate of building was 50,000 houses per year, at present it was 110,000, and the intention was to bring this level up to 200,000 houses a year.
5. Mr Rowlands asked about the organisation of the housing effort. The Governor said that he had created a unified statutory authority with more financial autonomy. Selecting sites and preparing development plans were done by task teams. This plan was then considered and objections listened to and thereafter any property that was required was resumed compulsorily and the preparation of the site began. The lead time in Hong Kong between the development idea and the start of the building work was in the region of 5 years. He agreed that the standard of housing was still low but that efforts were being made to improve this.
6. Mr Rowlands asked about corruption in Hong Kong. The Governor had replied that the rapid rise in crime had been a major concern in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Government had been concerned that this was related to living conditions, but statistics did not suggest that crime was particularly rife in the older estates. One way in which the problem had been tackled was the creation of mutual aid committees in large housing estates, which initially were created as anti-crime organisations but were increasingly taking on other activities. In the Governor's view, one of the biggest contributions made by these committees was to enable communities to get to know each other. It was also interesting that the crime rate had levelled off and that a significant percentage of all arrests last year were made by ordinary citizens. Turning to corruption in the police he felt that it took three major forms: the vice rackets which paid protection money to the police; the syndicates of police who collected from the hawkers and the taxi drivers etc; and finally there were those in the police who sought to buy promotion. They had had some success in tackling these forms of corruption and it was heartening that as a result of the introduction of cadet schools, the younger police were now willing to come forward to report corruption. There was, he felt, some corruption in the Administration but in general, certainly by Asian standards, the Administration was comparatively uncorruptible. However, by British standards, the incidence of corruption in the Administration was unacceptably high.
7.
Mr Rowlands asked whether the Administration would accept the Governor's new programmes. The Governor said that provided it could be demonstrated that a particular measure was to the benefit of the people in Hong Kong then there was no problem in getting widespread acceptance for it. Difficulties appeared when it was felt that a measure was being introduced for cosmetic reasons in the United Kingdom. He had no doubt at all that he would carry any required measures of
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