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counted and assured them all would be well. On the other hand, the more they committed themselves to the Hong Kong Government and Britain, the more they exposed themselves to retaliatory action by the Communists in due course. The Communists are already taking careful note of "collaborators" and saying that they will have to
pay when the Communists take over. On the other hand, the Governor feels that if the pressure is maintained or stepped up our position in Hong Kong would become untenable and we would not be able to exercise proper authority in it and these very people would suffer.
Although in discussions we took the line with the Governor that we had no firm indication that the Peking Government had actually changed its attitude towards Hong Kong, the Governor was disinclined to accept this view. According to him Mao Tse Tung had said that when politics are in the saddle economic considerations count for nothing. The Governor was inclined to think that this
stage had been reached.
The Governor's general conclusion was that Hong Kong could cope with the present measure of Communist pressure for several months. Hong Kong could well get through the present period and there might be two or three years of comparative calm, but it would only be a matter of time before the pressure began to build up again. In his opinion their objective was to try to enforce a Macao-type situation on Hong Kong, and they had already succeeded to some extent in that our liberty of action, i.e. in deporting ringleaders, closing down the Communist press, had been inhibited by fear of
escalation.
The Governor's view was that H.M.G. should take a decision
that we could not continue to remain in Hong Kong indefinitely and
that plans for a withdrawal should be worked out and a date fixed
for this. Including families, the number who would have to be moved from the Colony would be about 250,000, although this figure
was very much a guess. About 70,000 or 80,000 of these would be troops and their families, Commonweal th citizens and foreigners
living in Hong Kong who would presumably return to their own countries. This would leave 150,000 or more, mainly Chinese for
whom
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