CONFIDENTIAL
feeling
Hoy Zong
nuisance mitain
ntment at
is roroc Las intor Praco by tain in
1l offairs
6.
United Kingdom-ilong Kong relations during the past decado.
There has boen a growing feeling in ilong Kong that Britain, so far from being proud of Hong Kong's achievements,
In the regards the Colony as a nuisance and an impediment. post-war years we left Hong Kong to grapple alono (without significant financial assistance) with the tremendous problems posed by the influx of refugees from China.
At the samo ti:no'
wo are seen in Hong Kong as having dealt the Colony a series
of blows to its trade and finances:
the restrictions an
its exporta of cotton textiles to this country since 1959, the import surcharge (1954), the increase in the defence contribution (1966), devaluation (1967), the import deposit scheme (1968), and the decision to impose a tariff on cotton
Our actions textile imports from the Commonwealth (1969).
are seen as showing a lack of concern for Hong Kong'a intorcats and for her special problems;, as indicating an indifference
to the special ties and relationship which should subsist between a Colony and the responsible power.
7. At the samo 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 fooling of confidence among those who play a prominent part in public a 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,
The unofficial membono of sustaining self-governing status.
of Legislative Council, supported by public opinion as txpressed in the non-communist press, are therefore inclinci to argue that Britain should not interfere in local affairs.
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