TNAG-0645-FCO40-793-Employment-of-children-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 40

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production.

I can only say that had we been given

the opportunity, we should have been delighted to help in any way we could to ensure a fair and objective presentation of the facts.

It would be impossible, without making this letter unduly long, to go through the Teachers' Notes and deal with them point by point. However, my objection to them is based on the selection of so-called "facts", which is obviously intended to pre-condition teachers to acceptance of the political views expressed in the play. Some of the statements in the Notes are so contentious as to be wholly unsuitable, in my opinion, for use in an educational context. Examples of this are: "The (Hong Kong) economy has not been run in the interest of local inhabitants Britain has exploited Hong Kong as a detached component of the UK"; and "Social conditions force families to send their children out to earn money for food" Needless to say, both statements are entirely inaccurate.

Some of the statements in the Notes are true but misleading, in that they omit relevant facts that an impartial analysis would have included. For example: "Hong Kong still has the death penalty" This is so, but in the interests of accuracy, teachers should also have been told that the death penalty for murder has not been carried out in Hong Kong since capital punishment was abolished in the UK in 1966.

Other statements presented as facts in the Notes are patently wrong. For example, "Hong Kong contributes greatly to London's reserves and to the pound". The Hong Kong Government has wide freedom of action in the use to which it puts its reserves, and has in recent years greatly reduced its holdings of Sterling in London. The Hong Kong Dollar floats freely and is in no way linked with the pound Sterling.

As for the play itself, it contains aspects which are, in my view, extremely tendentious bearing in mind that Hong Kong is a dependent territory of the United Kingdom and that this theatrical group is financed largely from public funds. I will refrain from detailed comment, in the interests of brevity, but I think the political tone of the whole production is evident in the scene where a teacher urges a young girl to join a "union school", where he says she will be taught Mandarin, "The language of China". The teacher tells the girl that revolution will come soon, and Hong Kong will be "liberated". Throughout this scene the teacher is seen holding a small red book, and the implications of this are so clear as to make comment superfluous.

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