TNAG-0748-FCO40-952-Visits-of-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1978 — Page 23

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24. The received wisdom is that the local Chinese population want good Government and do not much care whether it is representative or not. I think that is broadly true, and that Mrs Elliot, Mr Denny Huang and others who press for a greater role for the Urban Council and for an elected or partly elected Legislative Council enjoy very little support at present. But we should not assume that this state of affairs will necessarily continue indefinitely. It was, for example, put to me that elected Mutual Aid Committees in housing blocks (I had a meeting with one of them), formed to help fight crime by organising anti-burglary patrols, might develop into some form of grass-roots democracy, or might at least awaken an interest in democratic forms of Government. I am a little sceptical about this. But it does seem to me that growing pros- perity, and rising standards of education are likely to lead in time to pressures for a less paternalistic style of government, and a greater involvement by the people of Hong Kong in running their own affairs.

Justice

There

25. I found some concern about the quality of the Bench. are many good judges and magistrates but also some pretty poor ones. Non Chinese-speaking expatriate magistrates came in for particular criticism, eg for their inability to deal properly with pornography cases, currently a matter of growing concern. It is hoped that Sir D Roberts will be able to bring about an improvement when he takes over as Chief Justice next spring.

Macau

26. I paid a short visit to Macau with the Political Adviser. There had been a fair amount of development since I was last there in 1969 but the place is still sleepy and run down. We called on the Governor, who said that the Portuguese Government were taking very little interest in the province at present and seemed resigned to the fact that this state of affairs was likely to continue. He assumed that negotiations between Portugual and China for the estab- lishment of diplomatic relations were in suspense; at any rate, he had received no recent information about their progress. He agreed that the reported Chinese demand for a Portuguese statement about the status of Macau was puzzling. He described his own relations with the Chinese authorities as very good.

27. In the light of the worrying rise in the Hong Kong figures we asked the Governor whether he had any problems over immigration from China. He said rather sadly that he had not. There was virtually no legal immigration and illegal immigration was thought to be running at only about 40 a month. He added that since Macau was currently suffering from a shortage of labour a higher rate would be welcome, and indicated that he might suggest as much to the Chinese authorities when he next visited China.

вышли

R JT McLaren

Hong Kong and General Department

9 November 1978

Cc:

Mr Samuel, FED Mr Smith, Economists

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