TNAG-0663-FCO40-812-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 132

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[Lord Goronwy-Roberts.] admired because it so greatly helped to give us a balanced picture of the situa- ton in Hong Kong, may I mention a point which I know he has very much at heart; namely, the problem, as he sees it. of the people who continue to enter Hong Kong from the mainland and who very often are turned away or turned back. He described them as political refugees", but with all due respect to my noble friend this is not quite the position. The vast majority of the many thousands who come into Hong Kong from the mainland are not political refugees. Rather I would describe them as mer- chant adventurers; the grass is greener, or thought to be greener, across the border.

Lord SEGAL: My Lords, I hesitate to interrupt my noble friend, but, if he will allow me, may I ask him whether it is fair to assume that these refugees are adherents to the Communist system or whether or not it is fairer to assume that they are non-Communists who wish to live, if allowed to do so, under non- Communist rule?

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Lord GORONWY-ROBERTS: Lords, clearly they want to live in Hong Kong; but what is reasonably certain from the fairly dependable information one gets is that they are not, in the great majority, political refugees. They are people who, rightly or wrongly, think they would benefit economically from crossing the border. That is all very well, and up till 1967 Hong Kong kept open door to them and in they flowed in their thousands. Indeed, in 1967 they came in, in numbers in which, even with the burgeoning population of Hong Kong itself, they could be digested socially and economically in terms of the resources and the accommodation available. But under the open door policy, their numbers had become 12,500 in 1971. By 1972 the total was 37,000; in 1973, it was 73,000, and of course in 1974 it was found necessary to control this inflow to allow legal immigration to proceed -and it is still proceeding-while check- ing illegal immigration.

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Where an illegal immigrant is able to show that his return would indeed lead to suffering on his part, he is not sent back. But those who are sent back-

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and the great majority are sent back because there is no real reason why they should come in-are not treated unduly harshly by the mainland Government, This is the information we have. if any Member of this House or of the other place has an example of what he thinks is the return of an illegal immi- grant who, because of his political opinions, is likely to be, or has been, dealt with harshly on the mainland after being returned, I should like to know about it. I can assure the House that every illegal immigrant's case is examined individually and, where there is any ques- tion of undue hardship attending his or her return, then the Hong Kong Govern- ment exercises compassion. But I repeat that the vast majority of these illegal immigrants are not there because of ideology but because of cconomic oppor- tunity, which is rather a different thing.

I now turn to the political aspects of this matter, and I want to concentrate particularly, but as briefly as I can, on the existing political institutions in the territory. There is little one can say about the future of Hong Kong itself and the end of the New Territories lease in 1997. One can only point out that this date is still quite a long way ahead and a great deal will have happened by then, not only in the territory but in other parts of the world, especially those ad- jacent to Hong Kong. It is not possible to predict what the circumstances will be so far into the future, and Her Majesty's Government will continue to administer the territory in the interests of those who live there, and will do so having regard for the unique internal situation in Hong Kong and the equally unique external relationships which this territory has to live with.

It is well understood in Hong Kong that the pattern of constitutional develop- ment followed in most other dependent territories, previously colonies of ours, that is to say progress towards internal self-government and thereafter, where appropriate, to independence, such as in the case of the Seychelles, as we obscrved when the Bill was read a second time in this House today-that pattern which Britain has followed honourably, effec- tively and successfully with so many for mer colonies is ruled out by the particular circumstances of Hong Kong. I repeat, this is sui generis not only economically

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