T
Appendix A
MEMO
From..........
IO/PO.
Ref.
LO/ASS/THLT
Tel. No.
Date
G.F. 73A
4.3.82
To..............AC/HQ,
SLO, J. 2
SA,
APO
Your Ref.........................................
dated
شا
X
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The Tower Hamlets Chinese Co-Op organised a talk on "What is the Future of Hong Kong?" by Walter Easey on Friday February 26,1982.
2.
The talk was held in a conference room at Queen Mary College and it lasted from about 6.30p.m. to 9.15p.m. I attended as an observer.
3.
A total of 29 people were present and the majority were Chinese from Hong Kong. Among the participants were David Chan of BBC Chinese Service and RTHK, about 10 students, several members of the co-op, and some members of the China Inter- national Co-Op Association. There were several British participants who were from the London Tenants Organisation and were colleagues of Alfred Chan, secretary of the co-op.
4.
Walter Easey began his talk by briefly introducing the historical background of Hong Kong. He went on to say that Hong Kong is now a gigantic financial and commercial centre and that the benefit to Britain of ruling HK is an income of about £1,000 million a year through banking, insurance, shipping and other trade.
1
5.
He said the problem of the 1997 lease had deterred large financial investments. One example was the delay in building the second airport. The project still could not go ahead simply because no institution was willing to finance it as repayment would go into the next century.
6.
He said despite publicity by HK Government and its supporters (e.g. Far Eastern Economic Review) about huge invest- ment confidence in HK, British interests had begun moving out. The best example was the HK & Shanghai Bank, which had moved a quarter of its assets away and was planning to channel another quarter out of the territory.
7。
He said no one in the Chinese leadership was able to make any decision on HK and re-negotiation of the lease was out of the question. The only future for Hong Kong, he said, was to revert to China. He believed this would happen in a matter of months, and "certainly not over a year."
8.
He supported his argument by citing the introduction of the Nationality Act last year. He said the Act was not introduced in 1983, which would be of paramount election value to the Tories, because it was aimed at HK. He also accused the HK Government of not doing any lobbying during the passage of the Act in both Houses of Parliament.
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