Question:
Lord Campbell of Croy.]
[ LORDS ]
take at least three years to report, and probably more; and the situation is continually changing. The United Kingdom Government, in close concert with the Hong Kong Government, should, in my view, seek at a time of its own choosing, to reach an understanding with China on the future of Hong Kong. The prospects are good because China and Hong Kong need each other as partners. The prospects are good because relations between all three are improving. The fostering of good relations and the recognition of the joint interest of the three parties is the principal task ahead and not the panoply and procedure of a Royal Commission. While, therefore, I acknowledge the concern of the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, and his very sincere feelings about the conditions that have occurred in Hong Kong from time to time because of the impossible numbers of refugees who have arrived, I cannot support his proposal for a Royal Commission.
7.51 p.m.
Lord Rhodes: My Lords, I welcome this debate and I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Brockway, for having initiated it. I am only sorry on one point, and that is that I never asked him to go with me 10 China and Hong Kong in 1979 or 1978, and in April this year when I am asked by the Peoples' Republic of China to go again.
Sometimes I think we are an arrogant lot to think, as we have done, that we can take our Westminster form of government all over the world to other colours and other cultures-one of the biggest myths that has ever been exploded in this century. I remember going with the right honourable Walter Elliot on a mission to Africa to present a mace on the hottest, most sweltering day I have ever known, with the Speaker and all the ancillary workers, with full-bottomed wigs, sweating it out. Where is the mace today? Nobody knows. And that has happened on so many occasions. Sometimes we get pontifical about the way in which other people should run their affairs; and this is one.
In my opinion there are three factors affecting Hong Kong: first, Hong Kong's relations with China, and particularly with the Kwangtung province which is contiguous to it; secondly, Hong Kong's relations with the United Kingdom; and, thirdly, Hong Kong's ability to cope with the requirements of and to provide employment for a younger, better educated and more sophisticated generation.
To understand the problem and the importance of strong and friendly ties with China, which has been so persuasively argued by participators in this debate, I think one must just look at the past and weight it up. We in Britain hold that the few square miles of Hong Kong were ceded to us in perpetuity by China under the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. A further few square miles of the Kowloon peninsula on the mainland of China were conceded as a colony in the Convention of Peking in 1860. In 1898 an additional 365 miles of the mainland and some 230 contiguous islands, con- stituting the New Territories, were leased by China to the United Kingdom for 99 years. So we contend that we have Hong Kong Island, a bit of the Kowloon peninsula in perpetuity, and that China holds the remainder of the colony but will not exercise effective
Hong Kong
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sovereignty over it until the New Territories' lease expires on 1st July 1997.
But China takes a different view. China says that the agreements were made under duress when China was unable to defend herself. This came out clearly at the United Nations in 1972 when Mr. Huang Hua, the present Foreign Secretary in Peking, was permanent representative of the People's Republic of China at the United Nations. He said this- and it is as well for everybody to get it right into their heads:
· Hong Kong and Macau are part of Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macau is entirely within China's sovereign right
you will notice there was no mention of a Royal Commission—
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* and does not at all fall under the ordinary category of * colonial territories '. The United Nations has no right to discuss
these questions.
+
For the above reasons, the Chinese delegation is opposed to including Hong Kong and Macau in the list of colonial territories covered by the declaration and requests that the erroneous word- ing that Hong Kong and Macau fall under the category of so called 'colonial territories' be immediately removed from the documents of the Special Committee and all other United Nations documents ".
That needs to be remembered when we talk about future policy for Hong Kong. I reiterate what other people have said about the necessity for goodwill and the building up of a friendship which the Chinese will reciprocate. Sir Murray MacLehose will go down in history as one of the men who have done more than anybody else to facilitate that very fact.
We made a journey to Peking at the invitation of the Chinese Government; and, do you know, they issued that invitation to His Excellency, in his official position as governor of Hong Kong. That ought not to be overlooked, because it indicates the consent to Hong Kong's status by the Chinese. In discussing the future, the governor was asked by Senior Vice Premier Teng to tell the investors in Hong Kong to put their hearts at case. So it is working.
Hong Kong is a neutral point of contact in Asia. It has earned the reputation of being a free zone of China managed by the British. A change has come over events during the last three years. There is now a through train service between Kowloon and Canton, a daily air service between the two cities, operated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and there is a hovercraft service operated by a Hong Kong-based firm. It is reported that a 200-kilometre four-lane highway is to link Kowloon with Canton by 1982. In addition, a regular supply of electricity from the China Light and Power Company to the Guangdong Electric Company was successfully negotiated and connected in 1979
What I am coming to is the interesting development that has taken place, and is taking place. How can you have a Royal Commission for a territory which is fast changing its nature? I ask your Lordships to tell me how. It is called a rapidly vanishing border between the New Territories and the adjoining Po-On district of Guangdong province. Whether we like it or not, this interlocking will go on and on. In fact, you will have difficulty in unscrambling it now.
How important is Hong Kong to Britain? The answer is that we have a unique position. As manager