PLANNING PAPER LINE TO TAKE
1. We are naturally looking forward to the Governor's comments on the Planning Paper. It might help to prepare these if the whole exercise were now brought into perspective.
2. The Hong Kong paper was only one of three Planning Papers written to prepare the ground for the then Secretary of State's Far Eastern tour. The other two, covering Japan and China, were relatively straightforward and generally followed the form and content of similar papers covering our relations with other countries. llowever, given the nature of our constitutional links with Hong Kong, and the delicacy and difficulty of the issues involved, the llong Kong paper was bound to present peculiar problems and drafting was far from
easy.
3. Our first concern was to advise the Secretary of State that he should not seek to engage the Chinese in a discussion of the internal administration of the Colony, a course of action he was tentatively considering last year. We were all agreed that this would have been most unwise, but the idea of seeking some way through the ilong Kong problem by invoking Chinese cooperation is never far from the surface here. During his first meeting on Hong Kong, the PUS drew attention to its re-emergence in the Fabian Society pamphlet and remarked on its superficially attractive, but dangerous, appeal.
1. We believe the arguments in the Planning Paper in favour of postponing any approach to the Chinese about the future of the Colony, for about ten years, should have been decisive in themselves. We were very grateful to the/ Youde
Governay for your help in their formulation. However, there was some doubt in our minds whether they would have prevailed unless we could suggest some policy for the development of society
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