CONFIDENTIAL
DSR 11C
The
The
General, that Hong Kong is foreign and not Chinese territory.
problem from the Hong Kong Government's point of view was that the title
Commissioner had been used to describe appointments within China.
position of the British Consul-General in Shanghai as an office of the
Chargé d'Affaires and not a Consulate was used by the Chinese to support their
request for the appointment of a special commissioner rather than a Consul-
General in Hong Kong. The position of the Shanghai office was specifically
referred to by Chinese officials on a number of occasions, though not
always on a strictly parallel basis.
74 During 1957 Zhou Enlai reverted to the subject on two occasions. The
first was during an interview with a Labour MP, Mr Warbey. A report of
which was published in the Daily Herald on 12 June. Zhou apparently
referred to the precedent of the Nationalist Chinese representative in
Hong Kong. Remarking that the CPG was "more moderate" than Jiang Jieshi
(Chiang Kai-shek) Zhou said that when the Nationalist leader was in power
"he declared that the Chinese Governor of Guangzhou was also his repre-
sentative for Hong Kong. This was as good as claiming that Hong Kong came
All we ask for is an official representative in
under his jurisdiction.
Hong Kong. Many of our people live there and need our help". In October
Zhou again raised the subject during the visit of Mr Erroll, Parliamentary
Under-Secretary at the Board of Trade. On 29 October Zhou re-iterated the
request for a Chinese representative in Hong Kong, "just as the British
kept a man in Shanghai".
75
On 25 February 1958 Zhou Enlai again took up the question when
Mr Harold Wilson was paving an unofficial visit to Teking. Isn't it
ridicular?' said Zhou, that China was represented in Hong Kong only by the reporters of FCNA.
/He
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Dd 0532000 400 M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell