continuing stability and prosperity.
We shall continue
our efforts to mobilise the international community to
follow our lead in supporting Hong Kong in whatever ways
they can, including the introduction of assurances
schemes similar to our own.
These measures are designed not to encourage immigration
into this country but to persuade people to stay in Hong
Kong, where they can continue to make their contribution
to the success of the territory, thereby benefitting the
community as a whole in Hong Kong. Indeed, the objective of our whole policy over Hong Kong is to give people
there confidence in the future, on the basis of the Sino
British Joint Declaration, and to ensure that Hong Kong
remains an attractive place in which to live and work, up
to 1997 and beyond. The measures we have announced are an essential and indispensable element of that policy.