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11. On the Police, most people seemed to think that the corner had been turned. I heard nothing but good about Mr Henry. Mr Purdon (who I met briefly) seemed to be well dug in and making a good impression. Mr Slevin acknowledged that a great deal remained to be done but seemed reasonably confident about the state of the Force. He spoke in terms of an increase in numbers from around 20,000 now to about 25,000 in five years time. I had not realised that continued expansion on that scale was envisaged.
12.
The mood at my meeting with Sir D Luddington and his assistants was one of sober optimism. They admitted that the amnesty had had a severely disruptive effect on their work but claimed that the num- ber of cases under investigation was now back to pre-amnesty levels. Within the RHKPF, the main areas of concern are the involvement of individual officers in the actual running of illegal enterprises, and the continued presence of officers who are suspected of past corruption but whose cases can no longer be investigated. Outside the Police the ICAC are concentrating on the "satisfied customer" type of case (eg in the Public Works Department) which by its nature is particularly difficult to deal with. I was impressed by the accounts given to me of ICAC's work on corruption prevention and community relations.
Social Security and Labour
13. I had a series of meetings with the various Department heads under the chairmanship of the Secretary for Social Services. I discussed the proposed Sickness, Injury and Death Benefits scheme at some length and also discussed it with the Governor.
It was represented to me that while a compulsory contributory scheme had many attractions it would be a cumbersome and administratively expensive way of filling a comparatively small gap. The fact that Hong Kong had not started out on the contributory path, but instead had opted for the Government-funded Public Assistance Scheme was a further complicating factor, as were the possible political objec- tions to death and retirement benefits. I said that the presenta- tional aspects were important: the Sickness, Injury and Death Benefits scheme had been seen in London as a first step towards a comprehensive social security scheme. The Governor took this point but thought that no one could doubt the Hong Kong Government's commitment to further social progress.after having read the list of intended measures contained in the letter which he had sent me shortly before his visit to the UK during the summer. He made it clear that he had not ruled out the possibility of some scheme on the lines proposed but the whole thing needed a great deal more thought. (He has now sent me his considered views, and I will be submitting them shortly).
14.
More generally, I was told that estimates for social security expenditure in 1978/79 are 50% higher than actual expenditure in 1976/77 quite an impressive statistic.
15. On the labour front, both the Governor and the Commissioner of Labour (Mr Henderson) hoped that Professor Turner would produce a good and useful report but neither thought this very likely.
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/Mr.
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