On February 3, ITV, in London, broadcast a drama "Afternoon Off" describes how misunderstanding and inconvenience created by the language problem of the Chinese immigrants had made Britons feel disgusted and troubled. The message is clear: "Chinese people are not welcome, please ask them to go home."
The British Government is planning a threefold rise in university tuition fees, from £750 to £2,500 a year.
In the past, many overseas students applied for permanent residence after staying in Britain for more than five years by taking "O" Level courses for two years, “A” Level courses for two more years and going to a university for three years. But under new immigration regulations to be effective from May 1, 1979, students from Southeast Asia will not be allowed to use this method to apply (for permanent residence). Moreover, from October 1978 all overseas students would not be allowed to apply for any scholarships or financial assistance.
Sub-headlines: Industrial actions in Britain are particularly frequent this year.
Our reporter has inquired at the Overseas Students and Scholarship Section of the Education Department about the fee rise in British universities. The section's staff admit that they have heard such rumours, but no official notice has been received. A spokesman for the Education Department says no information about an increase in tuition fees has been received from the British authorities, and Hong Kong students can still apply to take Ordinary or Advanced Levels matriculation courses in Britain.
Wave after wave of industrial trouble in Britain is something that is
unseen in other parts of the world. The Government is completely helpless. . All
the Government can do is to screen quotations from the Bible on television in the hope that the people will, for God's sake, take the future of the country into consideration instead of pressing for a pay rise to the exclusion of everything else. However, at the same time, Government land tax and electricity and gas bills keep spiralling, having regard for neither God nor the people in the least.
In a broadcast in January, the British Government had predicted that land tax and water, electricity and gas charges would rise by 30 to 50 per cent. Inflation was inevitable.
At the beginning of the year, lorry drivers staged a large-scale strike which affected the whole import and export trade of Britain. Imported goods piled up in the docks while foodstuffs were left to rot. Major factories were forced to stop production for lack of raw materials. As supermarkets gradually ran out of stock, a rush for commodities was on. Within only two weeks, 100,000 people lost their jobs. Tension did not ease until the Government announced that Ireland had gone into a state of emergency and the army was called in to help with the transportation and rationing of food.
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On January 26, some lorry drivers returned to work but others continued with their strike. The result was that the lorry drivers had two opposing pickets. Things grew chaotic when pickets of striking lorry drivers prevented non-striking drivers from resuming work. On the same day, the Government introduced new legislation which made it an offence for anyone to prevent workers from going to work. Lorry drivers who resumed work had to be escorted by the Police.
However, when lorry drivers finally resumed work, drivers of petrol vans started their strike. Long queues formed outside petrol stations and factories, schools and other organisations whose heating systems were powered by fuel oil were forced to suspend production or classes.
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