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HKCK 045/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
- 2 MAR 1984
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
PA
REGISTRY Acfon Taken
2 March 1984
HED.
152
Dear John
Hong Kong:
Letter from Mr Walter M Sulke
(40)
Thank you for your letter of 21 February, enclosing a copy of a letter and speech which the Prime Minister had received from Mr Walter M Sulke. I attach a draft reply for you to send to Mr Sulke.
In his speech Mr Sulke advocated the following course. of action in negotiations with the Chinese on the future of Kong Kong:
(a) stop negotiations now and wait for a Chinese
unilateral announcement;
(b) hold a referendum with three choices: the Chinese
solution, the status quo or an independent Hong Kong.
Mr Sulke expressed the conviction that the third option would be the most popular and that an independent Hong Kong should be created. He ended his speech with a call for the creation of political parties in Hong Kong.
In the covering letter Mr Sulke asked the Prime Minister to consider calling a referendum in Hong Kong to assess the acceptability of any Chinese solution for the future of Hong
Kong.
Mr Sulke is an appointed member of the Urban Council and serves on a wide variety of public boards and committees. We understand that his outspoken views have earned him some enemies on the Urban Council, who opposed the renewal of his appointment last year. According to the Hong Kong Government Mr Sulke's speech was prominently reported by the English-language Hong Kong press and routinely in the independent Chinese press. The only reaction in the communist press was criticism by a commentator that "an ignorant and arrogant foreigner" should propose a referendum and promote an independent Hong Kong.
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