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4.
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A number of reports and editorials linked the remarks made by Sir Y K Pao to a speech by Ho Sai-chu, President of the
Most Hong Kong Building Contractors' Association, also on 12 May. newspapers, including WWP noted Ho's remarks on Hong Kong's role in China's modernisation programme and the new opportunities offered to Hong Kong businessmen by the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone. Not reported by the left-wing press, was Ho's call for a concrete guarantee on Hong Kong's future; such as a guarantee that China would give at least 20 years notice of any intention to take back Hong Kong (see also enclosed press summary).
5.
Also discussed in a number of editorials was a speech given on 12 May by Michael Sandberg, Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. These picked up the Chairman's confident assurances that the Bank had no intention of trying to pull out of Hong Kong (as had been earlier speculated by the press) and maintained that the speech would help dispel "unnecessary worries" among the public. Sandberg's remarks were not reported in the left-wing press (possibly because they preferred to highlight Sir Y K's on the same day).
6.
The left-wing press picked up without comment the new Financial Secretary's remarks at a press conference on 14 May about Hong Kong's future depending on its usefulness to China.
7.
The
Of course it is difficult to know just what effect such speeches have on either NCNA or Hong Kong-watchers in Peking. left-wing press here is by no means uniform in its reports and comments on them, no doubt partly the result of the varying regard in which their editors hold those who presume to have something worth
I detect some saying about China and its relations with Hong Kong. sensitivity about comments which do not balance the important benefits for China of the status quo with the help given by China (toleration, but also cheap food and water supplies). The Governor commented on the spate of speeches that for the present silence is golden. We are certainly not encouraging them, not least lest the resultant independent press coverage (even when it is sensible) strikes NCNA as being deliberately sought by the Hong Kong Government.
Yours ever,
(I C Orr)
ain
Acting Political Adviser
cc R.J.T. McLaren, Esq., FED, FCO
M.W. Atkinson, Esq., MBE, Peking
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