Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
Telephone 01-
17
A E Donald Esq Political Adviser HONG KONG
Your reference
Our reference
Date
13 September 1974
LAST
RE:
4
948
Dear filan
"HONG KONG: A CASE TO ANSWER"
1.
NEX
REF.
Thank you for your letter of 10 September which must have crossed mine to you of 6 September. In case the booklet has not yet reached Hong Kong, I now enclose a copy. You may also like to see the enclosed copy of a submission about the booklet. This has now gone to Lord Goronwy-Roberts. If he approves it, we shall play the booklet down from now on. The only present interest here in the booklet and in Mr Sillars's support for it, is coming, surprisingly, from the BBC. Both Sillars and Teddy Kidd have been interviewed at least twice. We have tried to get the BBC to cool it, but as you know we have to be careful in giving advice to them for fear of a back-lash. Teddy Kidd has got into some difficulty with them about the allegation in the booklet that the Chinese Government would, in fact, not oppose democratisation in Hong Kong. I understand that when asked about this during his BBC interview, Kidd confined himself to saying that Hong Kong's geo-political situation rules out progress towards independence and that this is well understood in Hong Kong. He declined to be drawn on Chinese attitudes to direct elections. Apparently the BBC told him they were not satisfied with this and would ask the Foreign Office for a statement.
2.
We have briefed our News Dept. to refuse to give any such statement on the record. We have always avoided, even in Parliament, public discussion of Chinese policies and of the limits on constitutional development in Hong Kong. I see no reason to change this policy. However, we have suggested that, if the BBC do come to us, they might be given an off the record, background, child's guide briefing on the following lines:
"Democratisation means elections. An elected legislature means (and has to mean if it is to have any reality) a transfer of power to a local Government. This is a step towards internal self- government and independence. The Chinese Government have made it very clear both in the UN Committee of 24 and in private exchanges with us that they would not tolerate any steps towards independence for Hong Kong. They are content with the status quo.
This is the difficulty. It is well understood in Hong Kong.
3.
#1
This would not of course rule out a partially elected legislature but it would be premature and undesirable to get involved in a discussion of the pros and cons of that.
CONFIDENTIAL
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