ENG-1972 — Page 30

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REVIEW

In addition, minimum penalties have been introduced for crimes involving weapons or physical violence and police have been given wider powers to stop and search for weapons.

The government is also examining the possibility of a more exacting prison regime for those convicted of violent crime, and the introduction of a system of preventive detention for habitual criminals.

Announcing these proposals, the Attorney General said, 'During the past generation we, in Hong Kong, have prided ourselves upon an increasingly liberal and humane attitude towards the treatment of wrongdoers. More and more emphasis has been put upon the needs and rehabilitation of the offender, rather than upon the legitimate protection of the interests of the community. Generally speaking, our chief aims have been to re-educate rather than to punish the criminal in the hope that he will re-enter society and make a useful contribution to it, and also to deter others from behaving in a similar manner. It is a matter of regret that the time has come for us to take a harsher view'.

In the final analysis the confidence of the public is more important than the rehabilitation and the personal circumstances of a particular offender.

The Future

Unlike the problem of crime, which can only be tackled within the community, the economic prosperity of Hong Kong depends very much on external factors beyond its control. The resourcefulness of the people and the government's determination to create an environment that encourages individual enterprise and high productivity cannot alone guarantee that prosperity.

Hong Kong could never have achieved its present place as a manufacturing force in the world unless other countries were willing and able to buy its exports.

Hong Kong owes much of its success to the fact that it was among the first of the developing territories in the region to industrialise after the second world war. This gave it a head start in the markets of the world, especially in the markets of advanced countries. Nowadays there is no doubt that it is in these countries that Hong Kong finds its most lucrative markets. Some 45 per cent of its exports go to North America, about 30 per cent go to the enlarged European Economic Community, including Britain, and eight per cent go to Japan and Australia. It is clearly on the spending power of these countries and their willingness to buy, that Hong Kong's future prosperity rests.

The present and future of Hong Kong depends on overseas trade to an extent not parallelled elsewhere. Hong Kong is no longer alone in selling good quality, low-price textiles and consumer goods overseas. Other suppliers, particularly Taiwan, South Korea, and to a lesser extent Singapore, are becoming serious competitors in some fields with, in the case of Taiwan and South Korea, advantages of lower wage rates and lower costs.

The vital question for the future is: Will Hong Kong's economy continue to expand at the same pace? This will depend to a large extent on conditions in world

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