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(THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT)
9/48
K(69) 2
July, 1969
CABINET
MINISTERIAL COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG
COPY NO.
OF
COPIES
HONG KONG: LONG TERM STUDY
Note by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
It has not proved possible, for a variety of reasons, to arrange a
meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Hong Kong to discuss my paper
K(69)1, reporting on an interdepartmental study by officials on future
policy in regard to Hong Kong.
The report by officials proposes that further studies on Hong Kong
should be set in hand as follows
(i) To study the effect on life in Hong Kong of the approach of
1997, the date of expiry of the Lease on the New Territories,
which, it is envisaged, will increasingly stunt economic and
social life in the Colony (paragraph 49).
(ii) To estimate the bearing the approach to 1997 should have on the
social policies we pursue in Hong Kong in the meantime, bearing
in mind on the one hand that further widening of the gap
between Hong Kong and China would make transition to Chinese
rule more difficult, and on the other hand that it would be
both wrong and inexpedient deliberately to restrain a rise in
the living standards (paragraph 50).
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