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4.
Miss Doyle said that she would ask about the
possibility of more statistics but was doubtful. They did not collate information of this sort from application
forms in the commission. She did not think that Ottawa
did so either.
5.
She maintained that not only the Commission here
but the Federal Government as a whole were fully alive to the special circumstances of Hong Kong and were "constantly preaching" them. She pointed out that the Canadian immigration policy was a global one and that they could not take any action which would appear to be
discouraging to immigrants from Hong Kong. But they were certainly not canvassing either.
On the Canadian Finance Minister's remarks in
Davos, Miss Doyle said that she had been present at the meeting. Mr Wilson had talked to Hong Kong business people about investment opportunities in both directions. He had not raised immigration and had not commented on it
until someone else had asked about it. She was clearly put out that Sir A Urwick had spoken to Mr Wilson without our checking the facts. She asked that we speak to her
about such matters in future first.
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7.
Miss Doyle went on to maintain that the Canadian record was nothing like as bad as the press suggested.
The average annual intake of people from Hong Kong in the
1979's had in fact been higher than that so far in the
1980's (although she admitted that figures from mid-1987
onwards would almost certainly change this).
8.
I said that we were glad that Canadian Ministers
appreciated the importance of Hong Kong. Its continued
stability was an interest of the international community,
including Canada. I hoped that the Federal Government was putting the message across to the Provincial Governments.
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