CONFIDENTIAL
-4-
of military withdrawal will also create economic difficulties for Malaysia and Singapore in the short term, and it is for this reason that, despite our financial difficulties, we are giving the very highest priority to economic aid to mitigate the effects on their economies of our withdrawal. We are already considering with the two Governments its detailed application. Both the Secretary-General and the distinguished Foreign Minister of Australia drew attention to and emphasized very properly the importance of economic prosperity as a barrier against subversion. I hope that when the details of the help we are prepared to give Malaysia and Singapore become available that it will be regarded as a very serious effect on our part to help these two Gommonwealth partners in this respect.
Mr Chairman, having dealt with these matters, I thought it might be of interest to my colleagues when dealing with this section of the Agenda if I were to say a few words about Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong lies outside the Treaty Area, it is one of my direct responsibilities in the United Kingdom Government, and I think it is of considerable interest and concern to SEATO countries if only because Hong Kong has a unique position as a free community on the fringe of Communist China. During the last year, as my colleagues will know, Hong Kong has resisted a Communist campaign of civil disobedience and later of violence. This was, I think an overspill of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I doubt personally if the Chinese Central Government deliberately set out to disturb the status quo in relation to Hong Kong. To being with, they gave only limited support to the limited anti-Briti activities of the Communist extremists in Hong Kong; later on, they did provide considerable propaganda encouragement and some financial aid to the subsequent campaign of violence. The Chinese Communists would certainly have welcomed a repetition of their so-called victory in Macao by bringing about a similar humiliation of the Hong Kong Government but this we were determined to prevent the Communists enjoying. It is fair to say that the Government of Hong Kong, backed by the Government of the United Kingdom, succeeded in preventing this happening. We should bear in mind that humiliation of the type we saw in Macao probably remains the Communist objective although they may be prepared to settle for considerably less. The worst now seems to be over. Apparently as a result of directives from Peking, violence has now all but ceased. I believe this to have been due to the total lack of
CONFIDENTIAL
/popular
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.