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13. The British Government will devote its full diplomatic
resources to ensuring tht Hong Kong's position in the international community in particular in GATT and other trading arrangements, is maintained. I am confident that the
Chinese Government will do likewise.
14. We could not have achieved such a good agreement without the support and advice of many people in Hong Kong. I should like to pay tribute to the Governor for the firmness of his
leadership and the wisdom of his advice. The members of the Executive and Legislative Councils played a crucial role throughout this difficult period in Hong Kong's history. The advice offered by EXCO throughout the negotiating process was of the greatest value. All members of UMELCO made known
their own hopes and fears and those of the people of Hong Kong as reflected to them. Your frankness, determination and
sense of public duty was of great value in the negotiations. I should also like to pay warm tribute to the exemplary manner in which the Hong Kong public service continued to perform its duties, and to the patience and forebearance of the people of Hong Kong as a whole. It cannot have been easy to live with the knowledge that the whole future of the territory and its people was being discussed, as it had to
be, in conditions of confidentiality.
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