TNAG-0848-FCO40-1058-Future-of-Hong-Kong-New-Territories-leases-1979 — Page 85

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Rising expectations are creating their own pressures; improved education at the secondary and university levels will result in an increasingly articulate public opinion; the growing student popu- lation may become less docile. Malaise in the public service, currently overburdened because of the rapid expansion of government programmes, could also help to generate pressures for change, 13. The problem will be to devise means of giving the people of Hong Kong a greater say in their own government without causing alarm in Peking. Some moves in this direction have already been made, Unofficial members of the Legislative Council are now somewhat more representative of the population as a whole than was the case only a few years ago.

And considerable efforts are being made, through

soundings of public opinion and through the issue of Green and White Papers, to make Government more responsive to the wishes of the population. But there may also be scope, without offending Chinese susceptibilities, for more elective democracy. The solution currently being canvassed by some elected urban councillors (electing the entire Urban Council on an extended franchise and introducing an elective element into the Legislative Council) is not necessarily the right answer (the low public esteem enjoyed by most elected urban councillors at present is one drawback). There could be a case for electing more local bodies, and introducing elections into some functional bodies eg the Housing Authority. But it will be essential to proceed with caution.

The Social Field

14. The Hong Kong Government have made impressive advances in

the past ten years, particularly in housing and education, and the targets laid down in the 1976 planning peper have largely been fulfilled, Existing plans covering the period up to 1984-5 will ensure that progress is maintained. But there are still notable gaps, partic-

ularly in the field of social security: unemployment benefit as such;

available only to those over 70;

there is, for example, no

old age benefits are very small and

and there are no pensions for

widows. At our urging the Hong Kong Government have considered the

merits of a contributory social insurance scheme as a means of remedying these deficiencies (which are at present met

to some extent by the public assistance scheme funded

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