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1.
Mr. Minister, amid your busy schedule in Hong Kong,
we are honoured and grateful for the opportunity to dicuss
with you our anxieties over our beloved home, Hong Kong. We
wish to stress that we are a group of individuals. However,
the opinions contained in this paper constitute our common
ground which, we believe, also reflect the thoughts of many
Hong Kong professionals. Our aim is to impress upon British
leaders that in resolving the problem of Hong Kong's future,
Hong Kong's interests must be preserved.
Afterall, at stake
is not only the prosperity of but also freedoms which 5.3
million people have come to take for granted.
2.
Our group went to Beijing in the middle of May 1983
with the main object of informing the Chinese leaders that
whilst we fully respect China's position on sovereignty
there was a confidence crisis in Hong Kong caused by the
apparent lack of progress in the talks between Great Britain
and China and China's suggested solution to the Hong Kong
problem, namely, "self-administration by Hong Kong people",
leading to the outflow of capital, the "brain-drain" of
professional and mangerial people and the slide of the
Hong Kong dollar.
3.
Since then the two governments have met four times in
Beijing, but with no apparent progress towards the finding
of a solution which would preserve the avowed object of both
governments, namely maintaining the stability and prosperity
of Hong Kong.