ENG-1959 — Page 29

16

HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT

chosen for early completion. To do so would merely be to sub- stitute one method of financing by another, and would achieve thereby no real social advance nor would it be proper to transfer an already accepted financial burden to the shoulders of contribu- tors to the World Refugee Year Fund. For these reasons, it was clear that the most appropriate projects to nominate for World Refugee Year assistance were ones which, while really necessary, were temporarily held up for lack of funds. A further qualification was that these projects should be ones of permanent value, and not merely of a temporary or palliative nature.

The next important consideration was that of available resources other than money. Enough has already been said to show that the achievement of Hong Kong's planned advances requires the em- ployment of very large numbers of trained men right through the whole range of skills from the professional to the skilled work- man. The existing programme strains these resources nearly to the limit, and there would be no gain if it became necessary to slow up projects already planned because skilled workers had to be diverted from them to new World Refugee Year projects. World Refugee Year funds, then, should support only those projects which could in fact go ahead, having regard to the skilled re- sources available. Next, it was clearly futile to suggest a building project if there were no site for the building. Lastly, the effect of a new project on Government's recurrent expenditure was an important factor; for World Refugee Year funds might, for example, build a school, but the Government would have to bear the running costs thereafter and it costs roughly as much every two years to run a school as it costs to build it in the first place.

These, then, were the main considerations which governed the selection of World Refugee Year projects in Hong Kong: but the very nature of the World Refugee Year movement also raised other considerations which had to be taken into account.

In the first place, obviously no one could say with any preci- sion what total sum Hong Kong might receive until the whole appeal was completed. Nevertheless some assumption was neces- sary for planning purposes; and the Government decided, on such advice as was available, to plan on a basis that it would receive HK$42 million approximately. This figure was, and of course still is, no more than a guess. Next, it would have been highly