IN
7 3.5%
29 SEP 1976
from The Minister of State
The Rt Hon The Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Kayden Jain,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
24 September 1976
LAST
Jeels
ALF.
127
(ריו
Chit to HKIL 565/5 9 HILK 026/548/6
Thank you for your letter of 9 September. Mrs Elliott's work for the Chinese population in Hong Kong is widely recognised and respected, not least by myself as well as by the Governor. So also, however, are the efforts of a number of those recently appointed to the Legislative Council for the first time, as well as some of those who have previously served on the Council. I do not agree that only one of those recently appointed "has ever spoken out for the ordinary Chinese people". My information is that the Rev. Joyce Bennett, Mr Leung Tat-shing and Mr Wong Lam have all made great contributions in their different fields. I believe that the Legislative Council in its new and enlarged form now goes a long way to reflect the views of all sections of the community in Hong Kong.
I have looked carefully at the Tai On incident and at Mrs Elliott's letter about it. Subject to any further information which may become available, I have come to the conclusion that the story is somewhat different from that described by firs Elliott. I will not go into the matter in detail but it is relevant that Mrs Elliott chose to assume that the ex gratia offer of compensation made to the shopkeepers at Tai Un in July represented the total amount of compensation that the Government was going to offer. In fact, the shopkeepers concerned all knew that the ex gratia payment was an interim one only and would be superseded by a statutory offer of full compensation.
Mr James Johnson MP
/Since Mrs Elliott
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