CONFIDENTIAL
7.
TOP SECRET
16.
You yourself visited Hong Kong twice in
1972, as did Mr. Royle. This visible proof of personal ministerial interest was extremely welcome to all in Hong Kong. I notice that here, as I found in Denmark, relations with the United Kingdom (if a dependancy can be said to have relations) are so close and all-embracing that the 95% of harmony is taken for granted and only the 5% of disharmony is thought worth mentioning. British sovereignty and the British garrison, British help and the British connection are of course the basic conditions of Hong Kong's existence, and everyone in the Colony knows this very well. Such visits help to re-emphasise these basic and welcome facets of dependence. The visit of HRH Princess Alexandra and the Hon. Mr. Angus Ogilvy in October also helped in the same way; it also brought a gleam of royal interest and humanity that was very much to the Colony's liking.
Jaka
17.
I have not touched on many of our difficulties- narcotic abuse for instance, and the shortage of experienced manpower in the administration, nor, on a different plane, with the threat of a disorderly growth of stock exchanges nor on the solutions we are seeking or finding to these and other domestic problems, nor on the valuable help that your department has given. The object of this despatch is rather to paint a broad picture of Hong Kong at the end of 1972. One feature that strikes me as salient is that though Hong Kong is the home of over 4 million who have to a greater or lesser extent rejected China, a large proportion have not fully accepted Hong Kong. A new generation is growing up 55% of our population is under 25 - and is demanding more from Government, often rightly. Like any other government this one must govern by consent and must do so without the aid of the electoral system. If that consent is to be retained, not only must legitimate demands be satisfied, but the population must be convinced that such satis- faction is genuinely the objective of Government. need is not only for administrative action producing physical results; there is also a need to secure the active confidence of the population. We cannot aim at national loyalty, but civic pride might be a useful substitute.
The
CONFIDENTIAL
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