From the South China Morning Post this week in: 1979
A 'bureaucracy gone mad' is endangering the livelihood of Hongkong citizens and threatening their freedoms, said an Urban Councillor, Mr Brook Bernacchi. In an attack on the Government, Mr Bernacchi told a lunch meeting of the Rotary Club of Kowloon East that even inflation is attributable to the Government's refusal to take any action on spiralling land costs.
'Who really governs Hongkong?' he asked. 'Is it the Hongkong Government or are these mighty civil servants mere puppets of big and powerful hongs?'
In his wide-ranging criticisms, Mr Bernacchi also accused the Government of a shocking lack of care for the aged, of sweeping mental illness under the carpet and of not curbing the excesses of the police.
But he reserved his bitterest attack for the Financial Secretary, Mr Philip Haddon-Cave, who is at present acting Chief Secretary, and the effect his economic policies have had on land prices. 'Land prices are going up and up and Philip Haddon-Cave is just rubbing his hands together and saying, 'Ha! Ha! More revenue'.
'But why should the land premium go into general revenue? And if land in Hongkong is so valuable, why is it not controlled?
'Do not let us create a landlord class of corporations with terrific land holdings that they can sell flat by flat to the little man at a phenomenal price which he has to raise by high interest mortgages.'