CO129-604-5 Immigration- control over entry from China 4-3-1948 - 6-1-1949 — Page 75

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Annex C

(c)

(a)

(e)

(1)

(8)

8.

smuggling and currency speculation. Unrestricted entry and exit aggravates the smuggling problem which the Chinese ask us to co-operate in stopping. Hong Kong is full of black marketeers, etc., for whose activities the Colony is blamed, but whose entry it cannot control;

political malcontents freely enter Hong Kong and from this safe haven attack the Chinese Government. Though a close watch is kept on their activities, it is impossible to keep track of all of them.

Those activities are liable to prejudice our relations with the Chinese Government;

military. A large civil population is a great hindrance to effective military defence, as was learnt in 1941;

in the event of a Communist Chinese Government hostile to the British gaining supreme power in China control might be necessary for security reasons, especially if refugees in large numbers sought shelter in the Colony;

above all the present immigration free-for-all makes nonsense of most long term planning especially on the social welfare educational side, to say nothing of more material things like the water supply where our biggest and most ambitious project is out of date even before completion, e. g., the Shing Mun Dam. Some- body once said that the attempt to provide social amenities in Hong Kong was like trying to conduct a course in adult education in St. Pancras Station.

The above points should be borne in mind in the negotiation of a commercial treaty with China. Any provision implying freedom of entry of Chinese into Hong Kong as of right should, in our view, be resisted. It would be better to have a more ambiguous formula stressing the desirability of continuing freedom of entry if circum- stances permitted but not conceding it.

9.

It may be of interest to you to see the attached copy (Annexe C) of an article entitled "Hong Kong Immigration" by Mr. H.G. W. Woodhead, C. B. E., which appeared in the Hong Kong Sunday Herald of February 22nd, 1948. This article points out some of the difficulties which result from uncontrolled entry and exit into the Colony by Chinese at a time when China is in a state of near chaos. It also reflects the irritation of many of the European British community with the Nanking Government's failure to give foreign interests in China a fair deal, and with the lack of appreciation shown at Hong Kong's many efforts to co-operate with and help China. In connexion