4 million and an annual rate of increase of
possibly 100,000).
Here the impact of any
possible scle of migration to the b.k.
wold cle-rly be far less. The future
development of Hong Kong, however, depends on
the maintenance of confidence that the U.K.
will continue to pay regard to her interests.
Such confidence may well be weakened if,
seems possible, e make no special efforts
to protect Hong Kong's interests in any future
negotiations for joining the E.E.C. A gesture
of this kind, although of small importance in
itself, could be used to demonstrate the
.K.'s dontinuing interest in Hong Kong's
welfare.
ize of Quote
-ragraph 8 of the note recommends a
quota of 900 vouchers. This may seem large
but in fact is very much smaller than the
number of applications which were received when
the controls were first put on. The present
number of applications do not reflect the
real demand because long delays in recent years
in obtaining vouchera have discouraged
people from applying
There is little doubt
that a quota of 900 vouchers would be fully
taken up and could be said to meet the
essential needs of the dependent territories
and would enable us to demonstrate our
special responsibility for them.
Auninistrative
Grrangements wold be necessary to ensure that
the number of vouchers was reasonably well
distributed amongst the dependent territories,
although Hong Kong would get the major share
because