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international difficulties because of the general opposition to colonialism; and that Hong Kong present an increasing threat to our industries because of its cheap exports (but I doubt whether Hong Kong is necessarily more of a threat in this respect than other places in the Far East).
3. I think the paper on Hong Kong should also be looked at in the context of the proposed planning papers on China and Japan. It may be that all three should be submitted to the Secretary of State at roughly the same time.
20 November 1975
Mr Cortazzi
1.
in
the
a discussion
We spoke light of
with the governor.
A
HAH Cortazzi
@
TIMI
The short answer to paras. 1 and 2 of your minute above is that there is no reason in principle why you should not discuss the whole issue with Sir Murray MacLehose. Mr Donald is somewhat nervous about the views that he expressed to me in late August (my minute of 2 September herein) but it should be perfectly possible to discuss these ideas unattributably. You will appreciate that they constitute only one scenario among many and were put forward for illustrative purposes only. But there seems little point in constructing other scenarios at present given our basic thesis that we would not wish to contemplate alternatives to the status quo for some years yet.
2.
A list of the identifiable British interests, British liabilities and British commitments will be found in the attachment to my minute of 5 March at folio 2 herein. This mentions in brief most of the points in your para. 2. It is, of course, quite true that Hong Kong's cheap exports are not necessarily more of a threat than exports from other places in the Far East - or for that matter from closer at hand e.g. Turkey and Romania - but the colonial connection does require us to be more tender of Hong Kong interests. Hong Kong has, for instance, got a distinctly better deal from the Community than Taiwan or Korea.
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