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wishes of the colonial
people when she deals with the question
of the future of her colonies.
Tsang Tak-sing : I would like to bring out two points :
(1) Hong Kong is not a colony.
British government.
This has
been accepted by the I
Hence, to solve the Hong Kong problem
and to settle a colonial question mean two different things.
(2) The people of Hong Kong are different
from those of the
Falkland Islands. The majority of the Falklands inhabitants
are British while Chinese constitute the overwhelming
majority of the population in Hong Kong.
John D. Young: To say whether Hong Kong is a colony is to have
oneself caught in the deceptive web of terminology. If you say
the top-level men of the Hong Kong Government are not British,
I would query whether this statement is true. Whether Hong Kong
is a colony is not that important. What really matters is how
the five million people of Hong Kong think. Mrs. Thatcher has
stated clearly that Britain sent troops to Falkland Islands
because the Falklands residents wanted Britain to continue her
rule there.
Tsang Tak-sing : Whether the Labour Party or the Conservative
Party is going to step into power, the way how the Falklands Crisis
is handled today will have great implications on Britain in the
days to come. If the crisis is resolved successfully, Britain
can draw on this experience to settle her claim of sovereignty
over other overseas territories. On the other hand, if the
crisis is not satisfactorily resolved, Britain will certainly
learn a lesson from it.