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mum Age for Admission to Employment (not yet even ratified by the UK); a stricter code of industrial safety; more places for the rehabilitation of the Colony's 100,000 drug addicts (the Gov- ernment currently provides 2,000 places, with more than half of these provided by the Prisons Department); a greater com- mitment to care for the mentally re- tarded; these and many other matters would feature in such a list. The present rates of taxation could be raised, their application widened, the loopholes blocked, without frightening capital away. Of course, there would be an out- cry; no-one in the world over-reacts to such matters as does the Hong Kong businessman. But he also knows a good thing when he sees it and, even with higher tax rates, Hong Kong would still be unrivalled as a centre for trade and business in South East Asia.
The problem is that legislation is not enough. Without adequate social institu- tions legislation can end up as mere win- dow dressing. The proposed Committee of Enquiry should therefore look care- fully at this aspect of matters in Hong Kong. There is, for example, the attitude of the courts towards employers who break the law. In case after case the sen- tences imposed are well below the maxi- mum and frequently unrelated to the seriousness of the offence. In 1971 there were 449 prosecutions for operating un- fenced machinery; they resulted in fines amounting to about HK$290 per case. In 1971-2 there were 348 prosecutions for locking or obstructing exits and fire escapes and 759 for failing to comply with fire prevention orders, but the fines amounted to an average of only HK$174 per case. The maximum penalty is HK$5,000 (England and Rear, op cit). The average penalty imposed upon employers found guilty of illegally employing child labour over the past two years (April 1973-March 1975) is HK$328. Again, the maximum is HK$5,000 (about £500).
More fundamental is the weakness of the trade unions. Many of them are in- efficient, corrupt, hampered by lack of funds, inexperienced leaders, and restric- tive laws. Because they are politically
divided between those sympathetic to Peking, those sympathetic to Taiwan, and those which stand aloof from this argu- ment, they do not speak with one voice. Divided, they are ruled. Yet a central problem in Hong Kong is one familiar to all industrialised countries: how to build up formal relationships between em- ployers and their workers and, linked with this, how to secure recognition of the fact that trade unions have a valu- able role to play in industry and society at large. Legislation can help in this re- spect-it is one of the romantic myths of labour movements that they grew to their present significance by relying on their own strength-but surely there is a role here too for the TUC and the international trade union movement. Positive help, guidance, and involvement on a much larger scale than at present, is required.
The training of social workers and teach- ers too is an area where British help is required, not merely to supplement the efforts already made, but to provide a wider perspective than is common among those responsible for these matters in the Colony.
Finally, what about the British Armed Forces? Their presence in Hong Kong is both a present cost (some £40 million per year at current rates of exchange) and a potential embarrassment. Money which would be better spent on housing, educa- tion, and social welfare (in both Britain and Hong Kong) is being drained away on their upkeep, and Defence Secretary Roy Mason has said that he will be ask- ing the Hong Kong Government to bear a greater proportion of their cost when the present agreement expires in March 1976 (Defence Review, 3
Review, 3 December 1974). But this merely means that even less money will be available in Hong Kong for social purposes. So why have troops there at all? The commitment is not inconsiderable: one out of every eleven British infantrymen is in Hong Kong. Even so, the notion that they are there to oppose the People's Liberation Army is not credible.
The army in Hong Kong really has two roles. One is to prevent outbreaks of local
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