i have advocated for some time the establishment of an International Council of Chambers of Commerce, and I am glad to say that the majority of national Chambers of Commerce here agree with me. So far only the Chinese Chamber, for obvious reasons, and the General Chamber of Commerce have decided that such a Council is not necessary, the General Chamber pointing towards the New Committee of Chambers the Government is establishing. But, of course, that misses the point entirely since a Government Committee is appointed by Government, and in the S.A.R. I will give you two guesses who will have the majority in such a Committee.
Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go before we can say that this is truly an International City, and I feel strongly that our Government is not fulfilling its job in this respect. Why, for instance, has this Government not gone to the United Nations and asked for one of their international bodies to be Headquartered here? Too politically sensitive?? For a couple of months, right after the 4th June, there seemed to be a new wind blowing through the Foreign Office and our Government, but now it has gone right back and we are howtowing and being told, "For God sake, don't rock the boat". Well it is not us who is rocking the boat, it is China, and the only way you can get out of a storm is to sail away from it, not stop the engines in the middle and hold on for dear life saying, "Don't rock the boat". And while China is rocking the boat let me repeat my advice to our Taipans to quietly get together and tell the Hong Kong and Chinese Governments that if China's present intransigence goes on the private sector will not contribute one penny to any of the infrastructural works necessary to bring Hong Kong into the 21st Century. No money for roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc. etc.. The Hong Kong Government has already admitted that they cannot finance all that is planned without help from the private sector. This means if we all go on strike (quietly of course, no publicity) everything will have to be postponed until after 1997 when the Chinese Government will have to try and find the Even the present Neanderthal economists in Beijing will understand what that will mean for China and Hong Kong. A recent interview in the Wall Street Journal with K.S. Li seems to indicate that someone at least has been listening to what I have been saying.
We obviously also must do everything possible to give some kind of security to our people by concerted action to obtain right of abode not only in Britain, but in the EEC where, for instance, German firms should push for German right of abode for their employees, the French for French right of abode for their employees, the Belgians for Belgian right of abode, the Dutch for Dutch right of abode etc. etc.. And not forgetting our very large Portugese population which really should be taken care of by Portugal. EEC countries do not seem to have too much of a problem with granting right of abode to 350,000 Germans from the East, so I don't think we are asking for very much.
I can really only repeat what I have already said many times before: There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that we have to tell the Chinese where to get off, and, to my mind, it is perfectly safe to do so because I am 100% convinced that not one of the senior gang who are now in power in Beijing will still be there by 1997. I will give odds that they will disappear before 1993. And, in the meantime, we really must do our best to make ourselves international and indispensable to China, always remembering that God only helps those who help themselves.
This speech has gotten much longer than I intended it to be and I am going to sit down now hoping that I have given you food for thought in return for the food you have given me for my stomach.
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