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Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
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MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG
HONG KONG: LONG-TERM STUDY
Completed
(Note by the Foreign and Commonwelath Secretary)
In the early months of 1969 officials made
a comprehensive study of Hong/Kong in the long-term.
This is the first occasion on which the report,
K(69)1, has been considered by Ministers.
2.
>
I shall not attempt to draw up a balance-
sheet in respect of our continuing administration
of Hong Kong. The advantages we derive and the
liabilities we could incur in the short or longer
term are carefully set out in the study. But this
the central
What is crucial is that
is not an essential issue.
we have little freedom of choice about the future
discharge of our responsibilities. Hong Kong is a
special case in the political evolution of our
colonial territories.
of
We cannot attempt to bring
it to any form/Independenee status, since this would
be quite unacceptable to the Chinese. We must
recognise that it will eventually be for return to
China, and that the circumstances of the return are
almost bound to be painful, Both to the inhabitants
salieally
of the Colony and to ourselves. The gloomy features
of the problem as they emerge from study are these:
(a) The Chinese Government have at their
disposal (even without the use of military
(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500м 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
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