A review of the British Council library scheme which swaps classic books for Internet terminals should be extended to Hong Kong, a campaigner urged yesterday. The swap scheme has been abandoned in the council's library in Athens. Historian Arthur Hacker, who is leading a campaign to restore the classics, said: 'Why Athens, but not Hong Kong?' Plans to close the library in Athens were abandoned after a campaign by expatriates and British authors including John Mortimer, Fay Weldon and John Fowles. But Tom Buchanan, the council's director in Hong Kong, said the European review would not affect the decision to jettison all pre-1900 books from the council's new $300 million building in Admiralty. 'The situation is different here. In Hong Kong public libraries stock English books,' he said, adding there had been little demand for the old stock.
