CONFIDENTIAL
(231)
Miss Marbl мо москона
W/28/
3
FROM:
David Lidington
DATE:
28 March 1990
HKD 34014 PS/Mr Maude
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
2 5 MAY 1990
DFSK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
McLaren Mr Fraser
Mr Yeo MP REGISTRY Pavis MP Action Fiken Carlisle MP
Taylor, Home Office
Mr
ME PAUL,
Hong Kong Departmen
FOREIGN SECRETARY'S MEETING WITH SENIOR CONSERVATIVE BACKBENCHERS: TUESDAY 27 MARCH 1990
1. You were present at the Foreign Secretary's meeting with Dame Jill Knight MP, Rt Hon Paul Channon MP and Mr Keith Speed MP.
2.
The Secretary of State summarised the case for the Hong Kong Assurances Scheme in the usual terms. He stressed the objective was to persuade key people to remain in the territory and that the alternative of doing nothing promised a greater chance of uncontrolled immigration by refugess after 1997.
3.
Mr Channon thought that the Scheme risked falling between two stools. Was it not too little to satisfy Hong Kong whilst stirring up problems at home at the worst possible time. He was also concerned about the attitude of Peking. Would they not make the Scheme unworkable. "If this has to be done, it has to be done. it is an awful blow to the Tory Party at this moment".
But
4. Mr Speed recalled that he had been a minister in 1973 at the time of the Ugandan Asian crisis. He had then been a Member of Parliament for Meridan and believed that serious social disorder in the West Midlands had only just been averted then, even though the immigrants were professional and business people. In the late 1970s he had served as Shadow Spokesman on immigration. He did not trust Peking at all. In 1949, non-Chinese citizens living in Shanghai were denied exit visas by the Communists. He was very concerned about the prospect of further large-scale immigration. In his own constituency of Ashford, there was severe pressure on housing, health services, water and transport. The same was true throughout southern England.
5. Dame Jill Knight said that she had received "a number of letters" from her constituents protesting about the prospect of further large-scale immigration. She felt torn. She wanted Hong Kong to prosper but would have to put her loyalty to her own constituents first. "A number of us are in dire danger of losing
CONFIDENTIAL
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