TNAG-0279-FCO40-315-Visit-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Aff-1970 — Page 89

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problems;. as indicating an indifference to the special ties and

relationship which should subsist between a Colony and the

responsible power.

3. To this "unwanted" feeling the dismantling of our responsi-

bilities East of Suez and our military withdrawal from Singapore

have contributed, even though we have tried to offset this by

public statements that we intend to maintain the strength and

effectiveness of the garrison in Hong Kong.

Resentment at what is regarded as interference by Britain in

local affairs

4.

At the same time the Colony's remarkable record of economic

expansion and material progress in the last decade, achieved with

the minimum of outside aid, has induced a feeling of confidence

among those who play a prominent part in public affairs that, but

for the complication of China, Hong Kong would be capable of

standing on its own feet and, more than any territory which has

been granted constitutional advance, of sustaining self-governing

status. The unofficial members, supported by public opinion as

expressed in the non-communist press, are therefore inclined to

argue that Britain should not interfere in local affairs.

There

is, as the Governor has reported to Lord Shepherd in a recent letter,

"general sensitivity here to anything which could be construed

as outside direction"

;

5. Mr. Y. K. KAN, an unofficial member of both the Executive

and Legislative Councils, has been reported as stating that the

Colony's internal affairs are "remotely controlled by London"

and in the Legislative Council on 11 February Dr. S. Y. CHEUNG

said :-

/"I

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