(885363) Dd. 896639 1,000M 8/71 St.S.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No.
URITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
CONFIDENTIAL
No .8...
Type 1 +
DRAFT
BRIEF
To:-
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Внев
No
8
SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO HONG KONG
FEBRUARY 1972->
White
Paper
(AID TO HONG KONG
1.
CDEFENSIVE)
Hong Kong receives virtually no financial
aid from HMG. Since the end of the last war,
with one or two exceptions, it has run a substantial
surplus on the recurrent budget, from which it
has financed its own development expenditure,
which has been on a massive scale. In recent
years the Colony has enjoyed a spectacular boom
Ip
(budget surpluses of £0 million in 1968/69;
£31 million in 1969/70: £44 million in 1970/71).
Revenue has jumped from £131 million in 1967/68
to an estimated £215 million in 1971/72.
2. Hong Kong is the largest single holder of
sterling assets. Those assets stood at £682
million at the end of September 1971, comprising
official funds (£299 million) and private funds
(£383 million) held for residents and banks.
It is a sore point in Hong Kng that
3.
we have not felt able to make regular aid
Our reason is that
allocations to the Colony.
they have been able to manage without.
However,
the Colony may now be entering a period of
CONFIDENTIAL
/deficit
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.