TNAG-0441-FCO40-506-Visits-of-leading-personalities-of-Hong-Kong-to-UK-1974 — Page 89

AIDE

MEMOIRE

CONFIDENTIAL

I discussed this subject with you and with the

Prime Minister when I visited China last autumn. I told

the Prime Minister on 1 November that I would like to think

about the matter and I would get in touch with you in due

course.

The positions of our two Governments on the status of

Hong Kong are necessarily different. But, as I see it, we

have two important interests in common. These are to preserve the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong and to preserve the

I relationship which has developed between our two countries.

So far as Hong Kong is concerned, stability and prosperity

depend on confidence. Confidence is a tender plant; it grows only slowly, but can wilt very quickly. If, as I believe, we

share an interest in the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong, it follows that we also share an interest in the preservation

of confidence there.

We wish to preserve, indeed to strengthen, good relations

between Britain and China. So, we believe, do you. The

situation in Hong Kong is a factor of importance in these

relations. It follows that we share an interest in doing

nothing in, or over Hong Kong, which might unsettle these

relations.

In

I have given most careful consideration to your proposal

since I spoke to you and the Prime Minister last autumn.

the light of this consideration, I have come to the conclusion

.5

CONFIDENTIAL

/that