TNAG-0568-FCO40-701-Planning-paper-on-Hong-Kong-1976 — Page 102

Mr Cortazzi

Mr O'Keeffe

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Thank you for sending me the latest draft of the Planning Paper on Hong Kong which has been revised to take account of the Governor's views on Hong Kong's external relations. I hope that his views on the internal political setup will reach us soon.

2. We have discussed this draft before and it seems to me to be

in very good shape. I have some minor drafting comments which I have indicated on my copy (attached) they are mainly designed to make the paper more acceptable to the Governor. I have the following more general comments: -

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The paper is still on the long side for Ministers, even though it has been sensibly reduced by consigning detailed argument on internal matters to an Annex. I suggest, however, that if it is to make its proper impact it should, when in its final form, be prefaced by a full summary.

I wonder if, in the external section, it might be possible to get something more specific from Mr Youde about the possible effects of changes in the Chinese leadership following the death of Mr Chou and the presumably not far off day when Mao too will disappear.

In discussing the contingent liability for Britain to accept refugees from Hong Kong, I wonder if we can not be more specific about the extent of our legal, as opposed to our moral, humanitarian obligation towards the Hong Kong Chinese.

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You rightly refer to Hong Kong having relieved us of considerable defence expenditure under the sharing arrangements. But the need to retain major

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