PRESS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE MINISTER OF STATE
FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS, MR PETER BLAKER
ON SEPTEMBER 25, 1979.”
Question: I'm from All India Radio. I would like to know the new Conservative
Government's policy with regard to immigration."
Mr Blaker: The Conservative Government have said that they will produce new
proposals in relation to the problem of immigration into Britain.
These proposals are not yet ready. They will be prepared and
produced before very long. The objective as you will know is to
restrain the flow of immigrants into Britain because we feel that
over the past decades this has caused a great problem to Britain.
Our ability to absorb the numbers which have come has been very
much strained. But I can tell you that the proposals that we will
produce will not be racially biased.
Question: You said in your remarks just now and I think at lunch time next
door that the Chinese see Hong Kong as having an important role
in the rapid modernisation in that country. Can you elaborate on
that ?
Mr Blaker: I think that they regard Hong Kong as a window, their principal
window to the West. I think that they are expecting that a lot
of their business that they are going to do with the outside
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world