Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
DRAFT
CONFIDENTIAL
To:-
Brief for Joint British-
Soviet Maritime Commission, 5th Session
Type 1 +
FROM
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
cc
In Confidence
Miss Kally
HKIOD)
Mr Newman
MTD
VISAS
HONG KONG : VISITS AND RELATED PROBLEMS
Background
1. It is Hong Kong Government policy, which HMG
fully support, to keep to an absolute minimum the number of East Europeans (and particularly Russians)
permitted to enter Hong Kong, even for short periods.
2. Certain factors cause us to be deliberately
ungenerous in our attitude to such visa applications.
We have a considerable body of evidence that the
main Soviet aim in seeking to establish a presence
in Hong Kong is political, ie that they hope to use
the Colony as a base not only for observation of
Chinese events and to supply material for their
an
propaganda about Peking tolerating our imperialist
outpost on its doorstep, but also for actual
intelligence operations against the Chinese mainland.
The first reason for a firm line is thus the question-
able motives of many Soviet and East European appli-
cants, and the impossibility of distinguishing these
from the innocent minority, if there is one. Another
reason is the clear hostility of the Chinese Governmen
to the establishment of a Soviet or East European
foothold in the Colony. This is a most important
factor.
The relationship of Hong Kong with China is
a delicate balance of interests. The Chinese are
neurotically sensitive to Soviet activities against
(3002) Dmd. 145244 400M 10/73 L.Ltd. 839/1
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