UNCLASSIFIED
- 3-
the pledging of substantial new funds for the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees, and which, above all, brought the
weight of world opinion to bear on the Vietnamese Government
and convinced them to take measures to stem the outflow.
Now, in addition to our undertaking to accept up to 10,000
Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong into Britain, we are
keeping up the pressure on other countries to accept more
people from Hong Kong.
It is of course our constitutional responsibility
to defend Hong Kong's interests in this and other similar
matters of foreign relations.
But I am well aware that Hong
Hong Kong is synonymous with
Kong does not need nannying.
success. By all the laws of reason, Hong Kong should not be
here: if all the facts about the territory were fed into a
computer its size, its physical circumstances, its lack of
natural resources, the numbers crammed into its small space
the computer would, I am sure, prove that it is impossible
for such a place to exist. Yet here you are, one of the most
thriving, dynamic places in Asia. The explanation needless to
say lies in the one priceless resource that Hong Kong does
have: your people.
Anglo-
A very important aspect of our responsibility for
Hong Kong is, of course, over relations with China.
Chinese relations at the moment are excellent, and as far as
Hong Kong is concerned, we have been greatly encouraged by the
obvious Chinese desire to ensure that confidence remains high
in the territory. The Chinese Government share our interest in
maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. They
recognise that Hong Kong has an important contribution to make
/to
}