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CONFIDENTIAL
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Advisory Committee on Diversification: the Governor stressed the importance of this Committee (set up in
the wake of the tough new agreements on textiles that Hong Kong was forced to accept at the end of 1977) whose role he sees as being partly to ensure "that change beneficial to the economy is not inadvertently impeded by acts of commission or ommission by the Government". He anticipates that the Committee will have completed its task by the middle of next year.
Education: in his necessarily selective review of
recent events, the Governor chooses to ignore the recent troubles within the Hong Kong education system, notably the furore that surrounded the closure of the Golden Jubilee Secondary School in May. However the section of his speech on longer term developments did emphasise that the Government would be initiating a wide ranging review that would cover the whole of the education system including both methods and objectives. This review is to be carried out principally by people brought in from outside Hong Kong.
We shall be monitoring reactions to the speech, and shall submit further if anything significant emerges. The Times today carries a report from Hong Kong that the speech has been "acclaimed" by both Chinese and expatriate opinion there. In the meantime, I do not see a need for us to say anything more, beyond the general welcome for the theme of the speech that was contained in Mr Murray's telegram of 10 October.
13 October 1978
cc:
Mr Cortazzi
OLA
W.E. Cavill
W E Quantrill
Hong Kong and General Department
CONFIDENTIAL
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