CONFIDENTIAL
3.
stresses and changes in personalities cannot be
foreseen, and at the end of which some understanding
must be reached about the future of the Colony. I
am acutely conscious of the need to strengthen the
Colony against the strains to come. But all the
programmes and policies of the Hong Kong Government
are already directed towards achieving a degree of
economic strength, social cohesion and international
respectability which will be beneficial to the
people of Hong Kong, acceptable to HMG and favourable
to China, and this is all that it is within the
power of the Government to do. But the death of Mao
and the beginning of a new era in China underline
the need to do it and do it quickly.
Xthe
T. C
In the early part of the year, in
preparation for the Secretary of State's visit to
Peking, a careful review was undertaken of how the
future of Hong Kong should be handled with China.
was concluded that any discussion would be premature and
subsequent events have shown the correctness of this
#
view.
It
The complementary proposition was that mean-
while the policies of the Hong Kong Government, for
which HMG must answer, must be understood and defensible
in Westminster as well as Hong Kong. A protracted
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