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1. When Dr Hase rang today, he said that Mr Hawke, the Australian Prime Minister, would be visiting Hong Kong in late January. Hase thought this would be mainly for a rest during his South- East Asian tour.
2. Dr Hase also said the Home Affairs Branch are concerned that the press is not reflecting the increasing concern and despair of the general public about the future. People are beginning to believe that the HMG are about to accept the Chinese position. They are therefore less willing to speak out in public although most are still distrustful of the Chinese. The virulent attacks
by the left-wing press on the Hong Kong Observers (who accept the main principles of the Chinese proposals) are seen as a salutary warning that freedoms will be severely curtailed after 1997. Many civil servants doubt that they will still be in the service of the Hong Kong Government after 1997 - either because they will have left Hong Kong or because they will have been removed by the new regime. Home Affairs Branch are compiling an assessment of public opinion for submission to the Governor in early January, before he leaves for New York.
3. Mr Morris's minute below expresses concern about Dr Hase commenting on the future over the telephone. I can see the point, but I must confess that I find Dr Hase's comments interesting. It is always difficult to know how much of what he says is based on anything more widely representative than his own opinions, but even if it is primarily a personal viewpoint, it comes from someone whose job gives him wide contacts and whose commitment to Hong Kong's is undoubted. Moreover, we do not often receive anything else from Hong Kong in the way of assessments of public opinion beyond that expressed in the media. We know that they regularly collect and summarise material picked up through District Officers and other sources, but we never see any of this. (You may remember our previous difficulties in trying to obtain an assessment of whether EXCO were fully reflecting public opinion in Hong Kong.) I suspect that the main reason why Dr Hase makes these comments over the phone is that he can be more free in what he says than he would be allowed to be if he sent us a written assessment.
4. I think it would be something of an over-reaction if Mr Clift were to write to Sir P Haddon-Cave about this. If you consider that Dr Hase should be told to be more circumspect, I suggest that I write a personal letter to him. But whether or not this is done, I would recommend that Mr Clift write to Sir P Haddon-Cave asking for a regular assessment of public opinion to balance the impressions we pick up from the media, Ini be happy to bragt.
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HKK 040/21
RECEIVES IN
Fichofan
21 December 1983
Mr. Hum
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R J F Hoare
Hong Kong Department
No 29
no CM16/1 ]
CONFIDENTIAL
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