(8635) Dd.033274 300m 10/66 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
CONFIDENTIAL
Registry No.
Top Secret.
Secret.
X_Confidential_X
Restricted.
Unclassified.
Staff in Confidence.
DRAFT minute
To:-
Type 1 +
From
Mr. S.W.F. Martin
Mr. Carter
Telephone No. & Ext.
C.P.P.D.
Department
57
Ness West
Plse fard.
Ava
17/6
Peers from the Dependent Territories
in a Reformed House of Lords.
I have the following comments to offer
on the memorandum on the above subject
enclosed with your circular minute of 10 June.
Hong Kong has a population
2.
Para.4().
of just under four million people. Some 98%
of this total are Chinese in origin and it is
estimated that approximately two million are
eligible to hold British passports as Hong Kong
would
be
"belongers". It therefore quite wrong
C
to say that the vast majority of the
inhabitants of Hong Kong owe allegiance to
The Queen. Indeed, even those who are
eligible to hold British passports often have
strong family and other ties with the
Chinese mainland which they inevitably regard
as their mother country, even though many of
them came to Hong Kong as refugees when China
became Communist eetpy
3.
2
Paragraph 5. An important fact to bear
in mind, so far as Hong Kong is concerned, is
the likely attitude of China towards a
development of this nature.
Unlike other dependent territories Hong Kong
cannot hope for any constitutional development
/towards
CONFIDENTIAL