Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
4.
7/8
4 August 1992
The Sheve
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13/81
Miss Sandals M Bank of
11/8
London SW1A 2AH
HICO 014/1
From The Secretary of State
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Pels
5/8
Valedictory Despatch
Denni
I much enjoyed reading your Valedictory Despatch
of 3 July. I am glad that you left us these parting thoughts. You bring a unique authority to the subject on the basis of your long experience of Hong Kong.
In reading your account I was struck again by the tremendous psychological readjustment that has taken place in Hong Kong since 1982. As you say, the whole community are now working to make a success of their
future after 1997 on the basis of the Joint Declaration.
It is a great tribute to you and others involved in the birth of that document that it has succeeded in carrying conviction throughout the intervening years, and that it is today the one text that still commands support across the political spectrum in Hong Kong. That is a formidable achievement, and one that we will be at pains to preserve.
I am sure you are right that political development and relations with China will continue to require the greatest finesse. I find it reassuring to see so much contact developing between Hong Kong and China, most spectacularly in business life, but also more quietly at
the governmental level. It would be good to achieve the
same no-nonsense cooperation between Governments that the
The Lord Wilson of Tillyorn GCMG