CONFIDENTIAL
Hong Kong Government are well aware of this, and are making a
serious and determined effort to put them right. Recent
improvements have been made in labour matters, notably the
decision to introduce by progressive stages a 48-hour working week for women and young persons in industry (see paragraphs
10-13 below).
7. The New Territories, without which Hong Kong and Kowloon are
not thought to be viable, are held on a 99-year lease, which
expires in 1997. The Chinese regard the entire Colony as part of
China and would react strongly against any move towards
independence. Normal constitutional progress for Hong Kong is
therefore impossible. The Government are, however, looking to
the sphere of local government to seek ways in which the people of
the Colony may be more closely associated with the conduct of
their own affairs. Whatever political and social shortcomings
there may be in Hong Kong, the steady (but now manageable) influx
of refugees shows that many people in China, who know what Hong
Kong is like, consider life there preferable to that on the
Mainland.
Visits of U.S. Ships and Personnel
8. We continue to afford facilities in Hong Kong to visiting
American warships and to service personnel from Vietnam (including Australians serving in Vietnam). Given Hong Kong's precarious position, it is important that the facilities should
be for recreation purposes only and should not include any of a
warlike nature. The Chinese have surprisingly made little use
of this issue in recent months, which has however been the
subject of some strongly worded protests by them in the past.
/Hong Kong Garrison
CONFIDENTIAL
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