UNCLASSIFIED
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would scarcely recognise Hong Kong today. Yet I was still
not prepared for what I have seen in the past two days. The
development that has been achieved is astonishing by any
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standards, and would be even for a territory that did not
face the immense physical difficulties that have to be over-
come before you can even begin to build anything here. It
proves that one thing at least has not changed: the character
of Hong Kong people. Your determination, ingenuity, invent-
iveness and capacity for sheer hard work remain as great as
ever.
There is one innovation though that was certainly
less welcome - the refugee camps. I do not want to go over
the causes of the Vietnamese exodus, nor the tragic stories
of those hundreds of thousands who were prepared to face such
appalling risks in the hope of gaining the elementary right to
live in freedom. The problems this exodus has created for
Hong Kong are not of Hong Kong's making, and Hong Kong of
course already faced enough difficulties in coping with the
demands of your own people and with the influx of new immi-
grants from China. Yet when this new problem was thrust upon
you, the response of the Hong Kong Government and people was
magnificent, a shining example of humanity as well as an
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impressive example of efficiency in the way the relief
operation has been organised and administered.
I should like to take this opportunity to emphasise
the British Government's unqualified support for the Hong Kong
Government in coping with this problem. You will recall that
it was the Prime Minister's initiative that led the UN
Secretary General to convene the Geneva Conference in July
which in turn produced the doubling of resettlement places and
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