•
IN CONFIDENCE
PRIME MINISTER'S CALL ON WALL STREET JOURNAL, MONDAY 1 OCTOBER: HONG KONG
Towards the end of an editorial board meeting with the Wall Street Journal the Prime Minister raised the subject of Hong Kong. She spoke for about 5 minutes and after a brief response from Mr Bartley the editor for another 3 or 4 minutes.
2 The PM said that the Journal had written some bitter cruel articles on Hong Kong. We had a lease on 95% of Hong Hong and had to give it up in 1997. We could no more stay there after 1997 than Saddam Hussein could remain in Kuwait. But for the lease Hong Kong would have become independent like Singapore. We had proposed various solutions to China a new lease, a management contract. We got the best deal we could out of the Chinese and remained fully in charge of the Administration until 1997.
-
3 The Prime Minister explained the breakdown of those who would be granted UK passports. These would include entrepreneurs, bankers, young professionals, and administrators from government. The Prime Minister went on to describe the problem of boat people. Hong Kong had never pushed away any refugees. Hong Kong's population which had gone from half a million at the time of WW II to 5 1/2 m. today, made New York look sparse. Under UNHCR auspices Hong Kong had screened new arrivals; we had had to be pretty ruthless in sending back boat people to China. There had been fighting in the camps. To those who criticised us the Prime Minister said they should take the refugees and this included the US who would soon be inundated. The Prime Minister completely understood why the US turned illegal immigrants back over the Mexican border and to Haiti. There had been little cooperation from other countries in taking boat people from Hong Kong.
4 Mr Bartley thanked the Prime Minister for the candour with which she had spoken and noted her depth of feeling. He commented that the editorial policy of the Wall Street Journal was in fact that the US should take some of the people from Hong Kong. (It was not clear whether Mr Bartley was referring to Hong Kong nationals or the boat people).
IN CONFIDENCE