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to any extent on a belief that the Colony has been unwisely administered or unfairly explited in British interests. Our critics can safely be challenged to disprove that Hong Kong has been run to the benefit of nearly a million Chinese inhabitants and to all countries having relations with China, and that the opportunities it affords, in a material sense, have been equally available to all nationalities.
8. Apart from this there seem to be four main points:-
(a) The attitude of His Majesty's Government was made clear in Parliament on the 8th November, 1944. (The relevant extract from Hansard is attached).
(b) any adjustment of the boundaries or of the political status of Hong Kong would be a matter between Great Britain and China.
(c) having lost Hong Kong to the enemy it is point of national honour for us to recover it.
(a) we have a heavy responsibility in respect of Hong Kong towards all nations interested in the stability and welfare of the Far East.
The position of Hong Kong as a great centre of populatio
a focus of shipping, commercial and other activities give it
a special rôle in the furtherance of this object. This rôle
may be even more important in the coming period of reconstruction than in the past. We therefore regard it as a national duty not only to recover the Colony but to restore it to its former state of order and prosperity.
9. In short the two aims on which we have at present to concentrate our attention are recovery and rehabilitation.
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
16th April, 1945.
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