CONFIDENTIAL
252
HKD
040/4Foreign and Commonwealth Office
HKK 040/450
RECEIVED
REGIDINT
2 8 NOV 1984
URSK OFFICEN INDZA
A
?
en
London SW1A 2AH
Ps
in 279
n
26 November 1984
Dew chater.
Hong Kong Agreement:
Test of Acceptability
The Foreign Secretary has now received the reports submitted by the Assessment Office and the independent Monitoring Team on the test of acceptability in Hong Kong. In his absence at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels he has asked me to circulate the full text of both reports to the Private Secretaries to members of OD(K). Since the report of the Assessment Office is lengthy I also enclose a summary of its conclusions, drawn from Chapter 5 of the report.
Sir Geoffrey proposes that these two reports should be published as a White Paper on the morning of Thursday 29 November to enable Members of Parliament to study them over the weekend. I understand that the Debate is likely to take place on 5 December (it may possibly need to be resumed later in the week). The debate in the Lords will be on 10 December.
The central conclusion of the Assessment Office Report is that "most of the people in Hong Kong find the draft agreement acceptable". The Report also notes that the agreement was judged acceptable by all the principal representative bodies in Hong Kong, by the overwhelming majority of organisations and groups and by most of the individuals who expressed their views. It adds that this overall picture of general acceptance is confirmed by reports by and through the media, as well as by the findings of various independent opinion surveys carried out in Hong Kong. In this connexion the report in today's Daily Telegraph about the findings of an opinion poll part-funded by UMELCO and published by the South China Morning Post and others over the weekend is seriously misleading. Despite the Telegraph'a headline "Hong Kong plagued by Doubts and Fears for Future", we understand that about 80% of interviewees in this poll recognised that the agreement was either "very good" or "quite good" for the people of Hong Kong, although many of course expressed reservations on individual points.
CONFIDENTIAL
/The Assessment
Page 270Page 271