C
11
see, just as has been the confidence with which their agencies
have invested in Hong Kong.
22.
with;
we
As I said, Hong Kong will also have its uncertainties.
In other places these cover a wide range of possibilities such
as the stability of Government, the possibility of wide fiscal
changes, restrictions on employment and remittance of profit,
even threats to economic and social freedom. We are remarkably
free from these, but we have the risk of dependence on external
markets and this is a risk we have successfully lived with;
also have the requirement to reconcile the understandable
position of the Chinese Government on Hong Kong with preservation
of what makes its contribution possible as a free port and an
industrial, commercial and financial centre. It has always
been apparent that this question would become active in the
early or mid 1980s - one cannot be precise. It is therefore
extremely satisfactory that Sino/British relations, and Sino/
British relations over Hong Kong, have evolved so well,
that the personal and official relationship of officials and
businessmen in Hong Kong with Chinese officials whether here
or in Guangdong or Beijing are so good. It makes possible
dispassionate and constructive discussion, at the right time,
of this problem. The delicacy of the problem for the Chinese
Government, the goodwill with which it is being approached,
and the concern of responsible people in Hong Kong, are all
equally obvious. It is common ground that a solution must be
found. Moreover the mutual advantage of an arrangement
satisfactory to all concerned seems vast.
time, and we must keep our nerve.
and
Meanwhile there is
23. In the future, whether in the development of our trade
all over the world, or in
new cooperation with China,
/or in