the Service departments in the fifties and early sixties
over the surrender to the Hong Kong Government of
unwanted defence lands for the most part originally
provided free or at little cost to H.M.G. (e.g. the
£7 million Hong Kong had to pay for the Naval Dockyard),
the worst possible interpretation has been put upon
H.M.G's somewhat aloof and neutral attitude towards the
Colony. Defence land issues, which have been a running
sore for many years (off and on they have been cropping
up at least since the 1890's), are now fortunately
has
behind us; the inequities of past arrangements were
ironed out in an agreement reached at the end of last
year. But constant pressure by H.M.G. since 1958 to
increase the Colony's defence contribution, at a time when the need for improved focial Services pressed with
increasing heaviness on the Colony's resources, has also
engendered considerable ill-feeling and is a scar that will remain with us for some time to come (notwithstanding
the recent agreement fixing the level of the contribution
over the next four years).
3.
trade
It is on the economic front that H.M.G's
actions have perhaps hurt most of all. Hong Kong has
looked upon the U.K. as providing the domestic market
which its industries need. The imposition in 1959 of
limitations upon Hong Kong's cotton textile exports to
the U.K. (ostensibly in the form of an inter-industry agreement, the "Lancashire Agreement"); the extension
of this in 1963 to cover yarn and to include restrictions
[separate restrictions on broad categories" of such goods of cotton textilesetegories; the levying of the
hút Hồng Kông,
within the over-all
عليكم
import surcharge in 1964 (whichy of all our dependent
territories hit Hong Kong by far the heaviest, since it
95%
affected of its exports to the U.K.); the dispute
which arose in 1965 over the "carry-over" provisions; finally,
The replacement in 1966 of "voluntary" controls under
the Lancashire Agreement by quota restrictions
imposed through U.K. import licensing procedures; all these actions have been regarded by Hong Kong as being
prejudicial to the interests of a territory that must
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
/depend