SECRET
SUBMISSION
DSR 11 evised)
DRAFT:
mmute letter
FROM:
R D CLIFT
DEPARTMENT:
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
TO:
Top Secret
Mr Donald
Secret
Confidential
Restricted
Unclassified
(de
TYPE: Draft/Final 1+
Reference
HKGD
TEL. NO: 233 3184
Your Reference
Copies to:
Mr Elliott, FED Mr Rushford,
Legal Advisers
PRIVACY MARKING
CAVEAT.
...In Confidence
Х
Enclosures-flag(s).........
SUBJECT: FUTURE OF HONG KONG
Problem
1. To consider contingency plans fort the medium and
long-term future and the tactics for the proposed visit
to China and Hong Kong by the Prime Minister in 1982.
Recommendation
2.
I recommend that:
a) Ministers should endorse the attached draft
contingency paper;
b) the Secretary of State should write to the
Prime Minister as in the attached draft.
Background and Argument
3.
The Lease of the New Territories ends in 1997.
The shadow of this date will soon begin to affect
investment confidence in Hong Kong. Unless future
prospects are satisfactorily clarified, this will
happen by 1985 at the latest, perhaps sooner.
Chinese View
4. The Chinese claim that all the treaties affecting
Hong Kong are 'unequal' But they have not formally
abrogated them. They are deliberately equivocal about
•
SECRET
/the
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