CONFIDENTIAL
5.
機密
Students Fees
16.
Miss Cecilia Yeung raised the question of fees for students studying in United Kingdom. She said that the recent fee rises and the treating of Hong Kong students as overseas students had caused great difficulties to a considerable number of Hong Kong students in Britain. She herself had recently been speaking to students who had to return to Hong Kong prior to completing their course of studies as they could no longer afford the fees. Mr. Clift said that he was well aware of this problem. It was the direct result of Britain's policy of economic restraint. This affected many areas and required considerable cutbacks affecting inter alia British local authorities. Any information on the effect on students should be brought to the attention of the Hong Kong Government for the information of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Mr. Forsgate said that there had recently been speculation on Portugal's accession to the EEC, there were rumours that Macau students would come under the terms of the treaty of Rome and thus receive the same treatment as other EEC students. If this was the case, it would create a great deal of ill feeling in Hong Kong. Mr. Clift said that the situation was being very closely watched in the FCO which understood and supported Hong Kong's position. Dr. Kim Cham said that he appreciated that Britain could not take on an open-ended commitment to Hong Kong students due to the financial implications. However, he thought that this commitment could be limited by the British Government offering a specific number of scholar- ships to Hong Kong students. This would be a good investment in terms of UK/HK relations and an indication that the British Government was making some kind of investment in the future of Hong Kong. Mr. Clift thanked him for this constructive suggestion.
District Boards
17.
Mr. SHUM Choi-sang said that he was very concerned that there appeared to be considerable conflict of interests between the Urban Council and the newly created District Boards. The District Boards seemed to be attempting to duplicate the statutory functions of the Urban Council and also its permissive functions and not only was there a duplication of effort, there appeared to be a tendency to disregard some of the Council's requirements affecting public health. He said that the Government had not briefed the District Boards initially on the role of the Urban Council and considered that this should be done so that these
6./
CONFIDENTIAL
機密
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