italic
9.
CONFIDENTIAL
"Whatever the eventual outcome of this study I think
Hong Kong
its
such accountancy only part of the picture. offers a market of about $2,200 m, a year for industrial goods and raw materials which will rise fast; imports from China finance over one-third of that country's imports from third countries including the United Kingdom; it provides a trading platform on the edge of the biggest country in the world and in the centre of the Western Pacific, an area likely to develop as quickly as any other in the next decade, except perhaps the Middle East.
There is a built-in
Consequently
bias in favour of the United Kingdom. United Kingdom exporters should be urged to pay Hong Kong more attention as a market, as an entrepôt and as à base for operations in the Pacific area, as well
as a shop window. For this reason, I attached great importance to the visit in September of the Secretary of State for Trade, who I believe left fully sharing the above view. We have a vigorous and well directed
United Kingdom Trade Commission in Hong Kong, and United Kingdom exportes ready to make the effort and
to assure the necessary supplies can expect all possible
official help from it.
CONFIDENTIAL
89517
望
1