TNAG-0687-FCO40-836-Disturbances-by-police-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 149

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a population explosion of atomic pro- portions. In 1945 the population was 600,000 today, it is 41 million, and this in an area of rather less than 400 square miles. If you have an inpouring of hundreds of thousands a year into a tiny area like that (smaller than the smallest county in England), what do you expect, my Lords?-especially where the area is almost completely without natural resources from which one can create indigenous industry to sustain not only employment but social services. It is an area which, indeed, is deficient in the obvious essentials such as an adequate water supply. What is remarkable to me is not the fact that conditions in Hong Kong are as bad as they are-- and they are bad in patches--but that the quite superb achievements of the Gov- ernment in Hong Kong pass without more praise and appreciation than they actually

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part of the world, and in many respects much better. The development of preven- tive health services has now resulted in the eradication of quarantinable diseases, which is a remarkable achievement in view of the over-crowded conditions which have had to be overcome. Today, the average life expectancy in Hong Kong is 71-7 years. This is the second highest rate in Asia, and is virtually the same as in the United States. By the same token, the infant mortality rate is among the lowest in Asia. But there is no sense of complacency. There are extensive plans, which I saw for myself, to reduce hospital overcrowding, the target being to provide 4-5 beds per 1,000 population by 1980, as compared with 4-1 at present.

On the subject of education, here, too, plans are extensive. There is already free primary education for all up to 12 years of age, and it is intended that this should be extended to the age of 14 in a com- paratively short time. In 1974, the Hong Kong White Paper on Education laid down as an objective the provision of, admittedly subsidised, secondary educa- tion for all up to the age of 14 by 1984, and for 40 per cent, up to the age of 16 by that date, and the programme is already well on target. Över 160 new schools are to be built, and 42 will be under construction during the course of this year. There are also plans to improve | opportunities for further education. Three

We all know there are massive prob- lems in Hong Kong and there have been these problems in the past. We must also examine the record to see how the Hong Kong Government, backed by the British Government, have tackled those problems. My noble friend divided his Question into three. He asked what we were going to do about social, economic and political questions in Hong Kong, and as briefly as I can I should like to feed into the Record some of the facts and figures. First, in the field of housing-addressing | technical institutes have been completed, myself to the social scene-the Hong Kong Government continue to face great problems. But they have overtaken great problems, also, and 1·7 million of the population, or 43 per cent. of the whole, have already been accommodated in Gov- ernment subsidised housing. There are still, of course, many without adequate homes, but the Hong Kong Government are planning to house a total of 3·3 million, or 54 per cent, of the estimated population, by 1983-84. In this coming year, 1976-77, alone, it is planned to complete homes for a further 94,000 people. An important and imaginative part of this large programme is the con- struction of three new towns in the New Territories.

I think it is fair to say that the record of the Hong Kong Government in the field of health and medical services is already very good. It is at least com- parable with cognate countries in that

a fourth is under construction and a fifth will be started this year. The Government are also steadily increasing the number of places at the two excellent universities, both of which I visited, and all univer- sity places are subsidised.

At this point, I turn to my noble friend's query about social welfare pro- grammes and benefits. The social welfare programme has been expanded greatly expenditure on social welfare was 50 over the last few years. In 1971-72 the

million Hong Kong dollars--divide that by 10 and one gets £5 million sterling. In the coming financial year, it is expected to be not 50 million Hong King dollars but 400 million. The money is coming from somewhere. If the mass of the popu- lation is as poor as my noble friend has made them out to be, it must be coming from the rich minority he has been denouncing so much. In the coming fin- ancial year, it will be eight times what it

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