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Ladies and gentlemen, you will probably have noticed by now that
I have the warmest regard and affection for Hong Kong and its people and
I am
I know that this feeling is widely shared among my own countrymen.
sure we are right to recognise that relations even between old friends
should never be taken for granted, but do need working at and occasionally
burnishing, but at the same time we must acknowledge that many people
contribute in a practical way to sustaining the links between us and to
fostering the sense of understanding of each others' problems which is so
important.
The Hong Kong Association is one body which is certainly active in
doing this. You, Mr. Chairman, have kindly mentioned your Chamber's close
links with the British Trade Commission in Hong Kong and I, for my part
should like to praise particularly this Chamber and the Hong Kong Trade Develop-
ment Council who together are doing so much to promote business between the
two markets. Only last month in London I had pleasure of meeting the leader
of your Chamber's buying mission, Mr. Daniel Koo, who in spite of difficulties
with the weather was evidently well pleased with what he had found in Britain.
Mr. Koo told me that he and the influential group of store-owners who were with
him had been much impressed by the wide range and the quality of goods that
British companies had been able to show them. I believe that missions of this
kind, in both directions, are an excellent way of finding customers and
suppliers and we should have more of them.
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These three days in Hong Kong have left me not only astonished by
the rate of development that has taken place in only 15 years and your plana
for the future are no less ambitious and impressive but also even more
firmly convinced than before that here is a market, a territory, which with
its historically very close ties with Britain, offers to our businessmen
opportunities which must be almost unique and which they would be foolish
to ignore. That is the message which I shall certainly take back with me to
London.
I am more than