the speech mentioned earlier, he went on to say:
'I have no doubt that it is the inten- tion of the British Government to con- tinue to do all in its power to protect the interests of Hong Kong within the EEC. And in doing so it will have the warm support of the London Chamber and of all in Britain who do business with Hong Kong.'
The words we wish to emphasise are those of the latter sentence.
As we have stressed, Hong Kong's negotia- tions with and through the UK govern- ment are not limited to official channels. The link between our Chamber and the London Chamber, not to mention the Birmingham, Man- chester, Glasgow, Leeds etc. Cham- bers is one of the less obvious values to HK of the UK connection.
Sir Patrick stressed the size and strength of the Hong Kong group within the London Chamber. And it is no coincidence that leading officers in the London Chamber are men with a strong HK connection, such as Mr. Michael Herries and Mr. Jeffrey Hamm.
The part left unsaid
The Bulletin started this series by pointing out that the greater part of what should go into the articles must be left unsaid. We suggested that it was not perhaps the easily quantifiable factors such as the balance of trade
that really summed up the link between HK and the UK, but the many intangibles, such as the tie between our Chamber and British Chambers.
We could go on to list more of
these less noticed factors such as the recent grant of £900,000 to help in the establishment of the Polytechnic
but there seems little point in ring- ing the last drop of juice from the orange.
no
In this, we agree once again with Sir Patrick Reilly. We make apology for quoting him so often, since it seems to us, and, we believe to those of our Members who met him, that he spoke much common sense during his short visit here, without being either over-apologetic on the one hand or pious and bombastic on the other. He impressed us as having done the UK's image more good than many of the official visitors who have called in recent years.
'Don't let us forget that Hong Kong's postwar progress from devasta- tion to prosperity stemmed from a partnership.' Sir Patrick said. 'Between partners who owe much to each other, calculations of who gets most out of the partnership seem to me unprofit- able and indeed rather distasteful. I suppose that it is inevitable that these calculations should be made: but so far as Britain and Hong Kong are con- cerned, if these are made fairly, I don't think Britain need worry too much about the result.'
This series of articles, including our earlier one on the value of HK to Bri- tain, has really been based on arguable premises. The picture is truly too vast to sum-up in neat balance sheet fashion. And the partner who tries to quantify in balance sheet form who gets what out of a marriage is already on the way to the divorce courts!
26