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HONG KONG
(Previous Reference: C165/5(67) 2nd Meeting Minutes)
The Working Party considered a note by the Secretaries (C165/5(67) 2) covering a draft report to Ministers on the prospects for withdrawal from Hong Kong in the event of a sudden deterioration in the situation there,
Discussion showed a difference of view in the Working Party on the
alternative courses of action open to us if the security forces were unable to maintain their control of the colony or the Chinese Government decided
to intervene and drive us out. In the view of a minority, the prospect of some arrangement with the Chinese communists short of a Macao-type situation should not be ruled out. It was suggested that the position of Hong Kong
was quite unlike that which had obtained in Macao, since the material advantages which China derived from Hong Kong were very great and the colony possessed financial and other assets which would provide us with considerable bargaining power. It was by no means certain that it would be more profitable to us to make a hasty and chaotic withdrawal, on the grounds that it was unacceptable to submit to complete Chinese communist domination on the lines of Macao, than to make the best of a bad job by doing all we could
to save lives and material assets by attempting to reach some arrangement
with the communists.
The remainder of the Working Party, however, including the representatives
of the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office, while not ruling out the possibility of negotiation with the Chinese Government at a later stage if the Cultural Revolution came to an end and the attitude of the Chinese
Government became more rational, felt that the Chinese Government would not accept any kind of negotiated withdrawal on terms acceptable to us or that would differ in substance from a Macao-type situation. The present attitude
of the Chinese Government towards foreign affairs did not seem to be governed
by rational or economic considerations. Furthermore, the present widespread support for us within Hong Kong would disappear at once if we were to begin making concessions to the communists, since the police and our supporters generally would find it necessary to re-insure with the communists against the possibility of our withdrawal.
(97793)
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