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Department in the FCO will cover the contribution of Kong to the British economy. The internal administration of the Colony and the role of the Governor has now largely been covered in the note and background brief submitted to you through your Clerk last Friday, but I will be adding a few further pointi to these two written notes.
3. I also understand that you have requested a paper from the Ministry of Defence on the recent Defence Costs negotiations and that you will be having an opportunity to speak with Mr Rodgers later in the day. This briefing will not address itself to that issue: it is rather intended as a general political background briefing and an opportunity for you to ask any questions which we will do our best to
answer.
The note that we have already submitted covers briefly both the theory and the practice of the internal administration of the Colony, setting out the Governor's position and the role of the Executive and Legislative Council. I will try to put this information in some context by making a few observ- ations about the situation in Hong Kong.
5. Hong Kong is, as you will know, unique among our Dependent Territories. It is by far the largest remaining territory in terms of population though not in size. It is the 16th largest trading nation in the world. The pattern of constitutional development follote in most other dependent territories, that is progressive advances towards the internal self-govern- !ment and independence, is ruled out in Hong Kong's
case. It is clear that any significant change involving a greater degree of self-government would bo unacceptable to the Chinese. They regard Hong Kong ás part of China and would be strongly opposed to any constitutional developments which might ultimately imply a separate status for Hong Kong. Even if therd were not this over-riding obstacle in moving towards a popularly elected form of government in Hong Kong,
there would be the risk of dividing the population
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