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short, the theory predicts secrecy, deception, avoidance of discussion at any official level and continual bland reassuring statements. Surely that is exactly what we have discovered today as we have gone through the material. As I have been writing this article it has just been announced in the London press
that MacLehose's term has been extended for an unprecedented forth time to mid-1982. The rumour carefully spread over the last extension was that with a General Election pending, the Labour Government was reluctant to appoint someone who the Tories might replace should they win the election. This cannot be the case now, the elction is over and the Tories have another 4 years safe in office. It cannot be a matter of lack of a suitably qualified candidate, there are plenty. So what is it? Might I suggest that Whitehall wants to keep its own man on the spot to oversee that last terminal phasex
possibly the
man who finalised the agreement during his talks with Deng Xiaoping? The date of his final extension would then assume a new significance for the people of
Hong Kong.
So there the facts and my theory. Prove me wrong and I will be so happy I will eat my old smelly hat with a smile. But to prove me wrong you must find a feasible solution to the Lease Froblem, issue post-97 leases in the NT, and build the second airport. Unless this is done, uncertainty will remain.
May I add that the theory is independent of any speculation about China's desire or otherwise to retain HK in its present form. To my mind, all the endlessly repeated arguments about how important HK's cash earning are to China, about its value as a showcase, problems of accomodating the capitalist- tainted population etc. are specious and wishful thinking. There are no authoratative pronouncements from China on the subject. But even if they were all true, the Lease Froblem remains and I cannot see how China (let alone Britain)
can solve it.
Notes:
Walter Gmen
Walter Easey
London Sep. 29 1979.
1. The Crossman Diaries.Ed. Anthony Howard. London 1978. p. p 444.
2. United Nations, General Assembly, 27th. Session, Agenda Items 22 &63,
A/8989, 19 Dec 1972.
3. Renminribao (Peoples Daily) 8 Mar 1963.
4. United Nations, A/AC 109/396 8 Mar 1972.
5. Hongai (Red Mag) Feking, Oct. 1977 p. 38.