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his fellow directors of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank who are already there, the Legislative Council contains a fellow director of Dairy Farm and the chairman of the Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. Another director of Dairy Farm sits on the Executive Council, as does a co- director of Rediffusion Television Ltd. John Swire and Sons (HK) Ltd, the only conglomerate which rivals Jardines in the scope of its activities, does have its managing director on the Legislative Council. Needless to say, a director of several Swire companies sits on the Exe- cutive Council.
These illustrations only touch the surface of the manifold social and business links within the narrow circle which consti- tutes the Government's chief source of advice and consent.
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The flavour of the advice certain mem- bers give to the Government can be gained from the issue of child labour-one on which the vigour of world wide criticism of existing practices might be thought to have tempered their views. In 1970 Mr T. K. Ann, textile manufacturer and Un- official Member of the Legislative Coun- cil, suggested that one remedy for the prevailing shortage of labour would be to introduce legislation to allow children aged twelve to fourteen to work in in- dustry. "Moreover" he added "social problems that may arise from too many street loiterers due to shortage of second- ary school places will be mitigated (South China Morning Post, 27 October 1970). Mr Ann is currently (1975) a mem- ber of the Executive Council, the Gov- ernor's "Cabinet," and chairman of the Hong Kong Training Council which ad- vises the administration on the training of labour. This concern for twelve to fourteen year olds was taken up by Mr Wilson Wang in the Legislative Council on 14 November 1973. He spoke feelingly of their plight as, due to a shortage of secondary school places, these children were pushed into a life of crime on the streets. Among his suggested remedies was that they should be allowed to work in industry. The reply of Mr Li fook-kow, the Colony's Secretary for Social Ser- vices, is also worth quoting. He pointed
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out that children under fourteen were al- ready legally entitled to work in com- merce, agriculture, fishing and so on and this I think largely meets my honourable Friend, Mr Wang's point" (Hong Kong Hansard, 1973-4, p. 162). Incidentally Mr Li comes from a well known banking family in Hong Kong which has given much public service to the Colony. His brother Li fook-wo, director and chief manager of the Bank of East Asia and steward of the Jockey Club, is an Un- official Member of the Legislative Coun- cil.
This pattern of wealth and position with- in the central institutions of government is largely repeated in the composition of the very large number of advisory boards and committees set up by the Govern- ment to enable it to "keep in touch with public opinion."
what consultation means
The way the system of consultation works can be illustrated by reference to the passage of labour legislation. Before such legislation is formally presented to the legislature it is the subject of inten- sive discussions inside the Government and of intensive consultation outside the Government. It is the practice to circu- late legislative proposals for comment to employers' associations, such
as the Federation of Hong Kong Industries, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Com- merce, and the Employers' Federation of Hong Kong. By contrast, it is not the practice to circulate draft proposals to the bodies to which large numbers of trade unions are affiliated-the Trade Union Council (TUC) and the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU). The official reason for excluding these bodies from the con- sultation process appears to be that the FTU is communist and therefore would not cooperate. Hence, the argument runs, fairness requires that drafts should not also be sent to the Nationalist, Kuomin- tang-inspired TUC, although one might have thought that a reasonable policy would have been to send copies to both groups and to leave the nature of their
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