TNAG-0687-FCO40-836-Disturbances-by-police-in-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 148

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[Lord Segal.] characterise our present Administration in Hong Kong.

Finally, a word must be said in praise of the restraint shown, in the face of great difficulties, by the Communist Government of Peking. They have endeavoured ไอ pursue a policy of détente and to honour that policy as belits a great world Power. They have established trading relationships with many nations of the West and with 'America, and have turned off the heat where many controversial issues, such as the offshore islands, are concerned. May I express the hope that this constructive attitude of détente-in a region of the world which needs peace perhaps as desperately as any other region on the face of the globe, especially after the 30 years of war that went on in Vietnam- will be strengthened in the future, and not least where Hong Kong and its refugees, are concerned.

8.2 p.m.

Lord BOURNE: My Lords, will my noble friend Lord Goronwy-Roberts for- give me if I intervene briefly before he speaks? I have just a few remarks to make. First, entirely agree with the noble Lord, Lord Segal, that there are two sides to this case. It is very easy to criticise any capitalist system. Of course there are defects, of course there are things like heroin, opium, and other things; and of course, there are child labour and similar problems, But I think they are a good deal worse in Peking and Canton-at least, I think so.

I should like to divide my remarks under two heads: administration and defence. First, on the administrative side, what the noble Lord, Lord Segal, said just now was that the Hong Kong Government, under their Governor, are very much alive to these things. They run a frightfully good show, in my opinion. The Chinese are fully represented on the Legislative Council and have been for many, many years. I was stationed there before the war, when the population was only 600,000—a situation to which the noble Baroness, Lady Elles, referred-and I have seen it grow to four and a quarter million, having been back there since. Despite that, I would defy any colony to be better run, although of course there are defects.

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Kong i Turning to defence, this Government have reduced the garrison of Hong Kong to four battalions, a Gurkha engineer squadron, five naval patrol craft and an RAF helicopter squadron. In my opinion, that is not enough. There is a con- tradiction here, and I should like to quote from the same Report of the Expenditure Committee to which the noble Baroness, Lady Elles, referred. The only rôle

now which they are capable of carrying out is internal security. Yet, turning over the page, we find that the main function, exercised on behalf of the local Adminis- tration on

a continuing basis, is the securing of the Border between the Colony and the Peoples' Republic of China. That border is 20 miles long, and in my opinion the force available to the Colony is not enough. The Expenditure Committee implore that at least an artillery battery should be restored to the Colony, together with an armoured car squadron. That

is certainly not very much, and I think it would make much more sense in that setting, because, so far as I know, there is no prospect of any reinforcement. My Lords, that is all I have to say.

8.6 p.m.

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GORONWY-ROBERTS: good contribution! My Lords, the House will be grateful to my noble friend Lord Brockway for introducing this debate and also to those who have taken part in it. The debate, of course, will have to be read and studied as a whole so as to offer the maximum advantage resulting from our discussions. I hope that all the speeches that have been made will be studied both here and in Hong Kong.

As I listened to my noble friend and then to the noble Baroness, Lady Elles, I felt I should have my work cut out to steer a course between the Charybdis of outright denunciation of Hong Kong, on the one hand, and the Scylla of almost unalloyed complacency about the situa- tion in the Colony on the other hand, Fortunately, there have been a number of interventions by noble friends which have helped to give a fuller picture, and now I hope to do my little best to com- plete the picture and to put it into perspective.

It is very importanț to see the achieve- ments and the present plans of the. Hong Kong Government in historical context. Since the end of the war, as we have heard, Hong Kong has been faced with

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