3.
particularly unhappy in the case of persons who are not only in a dependent situation, but in it have served the Crown in good faith. Anything that fails to take account of the special constitutional position of still dependent territories seems to me hard to defend morally and in the case of Hong Kong to have highly undesirable practical and political implications. It is in their failure to have done this that I think the principal weakness in the present proposals lie. I still hope that something can be worked out.
8.
On a different, though not entirely unrelated subject, we are moving into the final stages of the legislative session and are facing increasingly strong opposition on bills to improve severance pay and to provide 7 days paid holiday. Quite a major and rather unpleasant.campaign is being mounted, and it is being put about that I am not acting in the interests of Hong Kong but to serve United Kingdom ends. The leading firms and particularly the foreign ones like Swires and Jardine Mathesons are being both sensible and helpful, but the smaller firms led by the Chinese Manufacturers' Association and the Confederation of Hong Kong Industries are in full cry. It is perhaps bad luck that these measures coincide with uncertainty about the outcome of trade negotiations with both the U.S. (the President is a Southerner, and the textile lobby hope he has the interests of the Southern textile mills at heart), and the EEC. We will push the measures through, but the going will be rough, and I am very glad that I decided not to pay my normal summer visit to the UK, as my place is obviously here.
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