TNAG-0610-FCO40-758-Hong-Kong-annual-review-for-1976-1977 — Page 62

9.

8.

noticeably began to decline. We are making

no claim of victory, and the unremitting efforts

to organise the population, police and public

service to eradicate these endemic diseases

will continue remorselessly, but I think

that 1976 proved that we are on the right

lines. There is no problem in which the

credit of the Government with the population

is so deeply involved and it remains my top

priority.

There has been a predictable backlash

to our new emphasis on social and labour legislation

announced in my statement of policy in October.

While this was received with the normal respectful

if rather muted applause, by December a combination

of business interests (notably unsupported by the

larger firms but strongly supported by the communists,

the Poujadist centre and the extreme right) was in

full cry alleging UK pressure to adopt UK models,

aimed not at benefiting Hong Kong workers, but at

eliminating Hong Kong competition and destroying the

Colony. The problem has been compounded by

coincidental irritants such as reaction to gradual

rises in the excessively low rents in Government

housing estates, and by a steep rise in the assessed

value of property and the prospect of a sharp increase