PRECIS TRANSLATION
Article written by Michael Lindsay in January 1946. Published in the Ta Kung Pao on the 16th February, 1948.
The Hong Kong Question
The writer has only spent a short time in Hong Kong and does not understand Cantonese. Consequently he knows very little of the conditions of life and the feelings of the ordinary people, He is thus unable to make any deep observations on the Hong Kong question but confined his remarka to matters of principle.
Ite conuidere Colonial Government as undesirable. Certain backward nations may require assistance from civilised powers at the outset but where two progressive nations like China and Orcat Britain are concerned their relations should be based on the principle of equality.
During the Sino-Japanese rar people's governments were set up in many of the rear areas and people who had been considered uneducated peasente proved capable of administering their own government. The people of Hong Kong have a comparatively high standard of culture and if they had their own democratic government they could without doubt administer it well. Kong Kong should consequently have a democratie Eovernment with rocial equalityす。
(The writer does not agree either with these who say that Hong Kong should be returned to China or with those who say it should renala wnder British control. The future of Hong Kong should be decided by the people of Hong Kong. Hong Kong had its own tradition as a free port. The people may wish to maintain that tradition either wader British administration or under their own administration. It is more likely that in view of their close ties with China they will wish to become a part of China and it should be possible for them still to retain the free port status of Hong Kong and to guarantee the economic interests of the British in Hong Kong.
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