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and would look into them. The Public Order Ordinance was under review. Mr Hilton Cheong-leen said that he believed it had already been agreed that the Ordinance would be rescinded.
16. On refugees, Mr Blaker said that he had spent a great deal of time on this problem since taking office. The Geneva meeting which had been inspired by Mrs Thatcher had been successful. The British Government was keeping up the pressure on Vietnam and hoped that the subject would be discussed at the forthcoming United Nations General Assembly. The British Government lost no opportunity of pressing countries of resettlement to take more refugees from Hong Kong.
17.
Mr Blaker said that the question of democracy in Hong Kong was always difficult. It was important not to lose sight of the point that for Hong Kong stability and prosperity were essential requirements. The British Government was determined to take account of the wishes of the people of Hong Kong, to safeguard their interests, and to defend Hong Kong's international position. Mr Blaker said that he had noted the points about participatory democracy which the councillors had raised. On housing the Government believed a housing authority with powers over a wider area than the Urban Council area was more effective. Functional progress had been achieved. And 8 members of the Urban Council sat on the housing authority.
18.
On the alleged communications gap between the Governor and people, Mr Blaker said that it was his impression that the UMELCO office and CDO system was dealing effectively with grievances. The position seemed better than he had remembered it years ago. He had taken note of the points raised by the councillors. He would look into what they had said about increasing the number of elected members and widening the franchise. Mr Blaker said he had noted that only 12,000 out of an eligible 440,000 had participated in the last elections. This led him to wonder if there was much popular pressure for more democracy in Hong Kong.
19. Mr Hilton Cheung-leen said that the important point was to let those born in Hong Kong know that they had this democratic right.
20. Mr Blaker said he was not briefed on housing allowances for Civil Servants. He would look into it.
21. On capital punishment Mr Blaker said that the Council should realise from the recent vote in the UK Parliament that there was no prospect of effective re-introduction of the death penalty in Hong Kong. Things would have to stay as they were.
22. Mr Blaker said that on textile exports, the new British Government had inherited the 1977 Agreement from its predecessor. It would be difficult to get the EEC to change, though Britain had succeeded in limiting textile exports by the Mediterranean Associate countries.
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