TNAG-0614-FCO40-762-Visit-by-delegation-from-Heung-Yee-Kuk-(Rural-Consultive-Cou-1977 — Page 168

CONFIDENTIAL

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VISIT OF HEUNG YEE KUK

1. Attached are two briefs prepared by the New Territories Administration for the forthcoming visit of the Heung Yee Kuk.

2. According to what the Heung Yee Kuk have told Mr Akers-Jones they would probably present two petitions to Lord Goronwy-Roberts, one on legislation and town planning and one on the Crown Lands Resumption Ordinance. Their views on both these matters are covered in the brief. Mir Akers-Jones is confident that the Kuk will provide him with copies of the petitions some time in advance of their arrival in Britain. If this is so, he will send as complete an account of them as possible by telegram.

3. The Kuk are likely to warn Lord Goronwy-Roberts that the contents of these petitions may be leaked in Hong Kong and that they could be the subject of some public debate before the actual presentation.

4. The Kuk have asked that Victor Chan of the Hong Kong Government Office should act as their liaison officer and suggested that he be in attendance at the meeting with Lord Goronwy-Roberts to act as an interpreter. have no objection to this.

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5. The leader of the delegation, Mr Cheung Yan-lung, proposes to make a speech at the cocktail party being given by the Kuk.

accordingly from what Mr Akers-Jones has been able to discover, it is likely

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that Mr Parry will be disappointed with the contents of the speech, i.e. it is much more likely to be a resigned statement of their grievances than an attack on the good faith of the Hong Kong or British Governments.

6.

There were two additional points brought out which might be used in briefing Lord Goronwy-Roberts which do not appear in the briefs. First is that although we may place no great significance on the date 1997, the Crown lawyers cannot clearly issue leases terminating beyond that date. Therefore, the amoritization period for large capital projects is limited and the rate of capital return must be much greater than would other- wise be normal, therefore the amount of the cake available for compensation of indigenous land owners, settlers or squatters is equally limited. Second, the New Territories is the only place available for expansion in Hong Kong. The development programme is for the benefit of the people of Hong Kong as a whole as well as the autochthonous inhabitants of the New Territories who are represented by the Kuk. These now represent only a very small proportion of the population of the New Territories, perhaps some 50% as against a population in the New Territories by the end of this decade of perhaps 2 million. Therefore, although considera- tion will be given to the interests of the original inhabitants, theirs cannot be the only interest to be considered.

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CODE

18-77

5 April 1977

pp J A B Stewart

CONFIDENTIAL