SEAAGL (3)
million
policy reply that most of the 3.28 would never take up the offer,
Who can make this prediction with my degger of certainty? preferring to stay in Hong Kong.
Can Say for sure I do not think it would be sensible to make an offer with such potentially dramatic and unforseen consequences simply on the basis that it
would be refused.
8.
Of course if the worst came to the worst and that is very far
from the situation at present then we would have a very strong moral obligation to act. I would hope that in those circumstances any future British government could also rely on the support of the friends in the international community. But it is too early to
contemplate wholesale evacuation now.
teannot attept that (This does not imply any lack of comenitment to the future of 9. the Hong Kong people. We do not intend to deliver them "like so many sacks of potatoes" into the hands of a Communist tyranny, nor indeed into anybody else's hands. I remain convinced that their best interests will be served by our continuing to work for the full implementation of the Joint Declaration and a Basic Law which fully reflects its provisions. Only in this way can we preserve Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy, and erect a legal and administrative protective screen behind which her people may continue to live in their own homes, in their own territory in peace and in prosperity. That, it seems to me, is honourable goal, and one to which I am personally committed. The lion will not abandon it lightly.
Qu