II
5.
SECRET
6.
(g) They care little for representative institutions,
for elections or for the machinery of democracy;
they have never had them. But they want to
feel that they are in touch with their Government
and that they have access to it so that their
grievances will be listened to, and that they
will have a say in the issues which affect them.
The great majority of the inhabitants of
Hong Kong are bitterly opposed to any significant change
in its present status. This does not mean that they
are hostile to social improvements or to developments
which will improve the standard of life in a desparately
crowded community. It does mean that they want Hong
Kong to remain British and that they expect HMG to do
all it can to ensure that it does not return to China.
Consequently, any attempt at British disengagement would
be viewed with almost universal horror by the people of
Hong Kong, so many of whom went there to escape the present
regime in China.
The British Interest
6.
Even if no account were taken of Britain's
dbligations to Hong Kong the British interest requires
the continuance of the status quo for some time yet.
Changing the present colonial link would be extremely
difficult without risking a massive exodus of Hong Kong
Chinese refugees with humanitarian, if not legal,
claims to entry into the United Kingdom. The number of
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