DIEU
ET MON
4.
DROIT
Government House, Đong Kong.
informal investigation.
I should like to say that I am
I can
the last person to encourage parochialism.
appreciate that Hong Kong cannot expect its interests
to be divorced entirely from British policy in China.
On the other hand, I cannot imagine that British policy
in China can possibly divorce itself from the interests
of Hong Kong. I feel convinced of the correctness of
my view that an agreement, allowing China to operate a
preventive service, including a fleet, in the waters of
Hong Kong, should be regarded as wholly unacceptable.
However small the objections to it may have been when it
was first mooted, there is no doubt in my mind that it
would be most dangerous today, when the irridentism of
China is so apparent. I cannot envisage a British policy
in China, which would permit of the very foundations of
our position in Hong Kong being imperilled. It was a
great mistake, in my opinion, ever to have contemplated
such a concession, even in order to obtain an excessive
concession from the other side. We showed signs of our
readiness to sell a birthright, whereas China did not.
You will see, both from Lampson's despatch to the Foreign
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