CONFIDENTIAL
Government's view is that this is not due to prejudice but to inadequate numbers of good local candidates. Mr Cater, among others, was not convinced of this. There was general agreement however that whatever happened it would be necessary in both the higher ranks of the Civil Service and the Police to maintain a reasonable proportion of expatriates if only because of the China angle. There was no agreement on what this proportion should be but perhaps 40 per cent would be a reasonable target. Unfortunately, the overall calibre of the Hong Kong Civil Service is not as high
as it should be, and it is already very greatly stretched. This
certainly is a factor to be borne in mind when considering an
extension of government services.
SOCIAL SECURITY
8. I did not go into this in any detail in view of the fact that
the Governor and Mr Ho, the Secretary for Social Services, were discussing the subject in London, but I did get the firm impression
that the Government's Green Paper was more conservative than necessary. The response so far had been that it should be generally compulsory and the employers had even suggested that one way of dealing with sickness pay was simply to extend their obligation to pay this for a longer period. When I asked about objections to
a Government contribution other than the costs of administration, I got no satisfactory response. When I asked about unemployment insurance the main objection seemed to be that this would encourage the workshy and undermine the Public Assistance Scheme. I pointed
out the illogicality of the latter argument and my disbelief in
the first argument which seemed to me to smack of a 19th century approach. In any case unemployment insurance which would provide benefit as a right would be for a strictly limited period. Only thereafter would Public Assistance apply. It was a question of
getting the levels of benefit right.
ECONOMIC PLANNING
9.
When I discussed the desirability of greater economic planning in Hong Kong, I found a wide variety of views. Some senior officials thought that there was already too much, others that it was
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