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4. In his telegram no. 993, the Governor maintains that if he tries to underplay the importance of the proposed negotiating mandate for the bilateral textiles agreement, his stance would undermine his credibility and detract from his ability to carry out his plans for social and other reforms. I do not find this a very convincing argument. I do believe, however, that we should wherever possible leave it to the Governor to decide how such matters should best be presented locally. The EEC mandate, if it turns out, as is most likely, to be in or near the form already communicated to Hong Kong, will undoubtedly do quite considerable harm to Hong Kong's economy. I do not, therefore, believe that any Governor could reasonably avoid making reference to the situation in a Legislative Council speech, particularly given the unfortunate temporal coincidence. I further believe that we could not reasonably expect the Governor to avoid voicing the very real concern felt in Hong Kong about the future of their textile exports, both to the Community and to other markets. I, therefore, recommend that we should not try to persuade the Governor to rephrase the appropriate passage in his speech.
5.
EID (E) concur with the above recommendation. They have also confirmed that the proposed disclosure of the Commission's proposals for the negotiating mandate does not in any way represent a breach
of confidence.
6. The Governor has accepted (Hong Kong telegram no. 992) those points in our telegram no. 753 dealing with the introduction of free and compulsory junior secondary education and the need to mention the plan to involve trade unions in discussions on the public assistance proposals.
7. On the general question of the "future development of social protection in Hong Kong" the Governor has agreed to omit the reference to the proposed system as "reasonably complete". He is not prepared, however, to commend the contributory sickness and death insurance scheme as some thing to be built on for the future
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