TNAG-0752-FCO40-956-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 70

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Council. Much of this is recognised by informed opinion in Hong Kong, where there is no popular pressure for constitutional advances. It is accordingly our policy to present any constitutional changes in the colony merely as "improvements" to the existing machinery and not as part of a continuing process of advance towards self-government. However, this position cannot be explained publicly in the United Nations.

13. Discussion of Hong Kong by the Committee could therefore be most embarrassing. There is reason to believe that the Communist Chinese share our interest in maintaining the status quo in Hong Kong, at any rate for the next few years, although in the longer run they are unlikely to be content with anything short of reintegration into China. From this point of view it is important that we should give no impression either that we contemplate any change in the colony's relationship with the United Kingdom or that we exclude return of the leased territories to China on expiry of the lease. From the colony's point of view it is undesirable that we should make any public reference to the lease in the context of a discussion about the future of the colony, for fear that this would severely damage public confidence in Hong Kong. These considerations virtually debar us from saying anything publicly about the future of the colony.

14. We shall not be able to get Hong Kong excluded altogether from the committee's agenda. Our best hope is that the committee may skate over it in an innocuous way. There was evidence last year that the Communist representatives on the committee were not keen to have Hong Kong discussed-on the ground that it is an integral part of China-and that other members were reluctant to become involved in so delicate a matter. This year the Chinese Communists are known to have made approaches to the Danish Government to use their influence to prevent discussion. In order to foster this attitude it may be useful in due course to make representations to selected members of the committee, both in New York and in their capitals, to seek to persuade them that Hong Kong is best left alone, as a problem of a different order from other non-self-governing territories. In such approaches use could be made of the following arguments:

(a) There is no popular demand for major constitutional advance in Hong Kong, in spite of the fact that there is a relatively high level of education and development there. This is because some of the people in Hong Kong are there because they prefer it to Communist China and some are acutely aware of considerations (b) and (c) below. The people of Hong Kong judge it to be in their best interests to see the present system of government maintained substantially unaltered. (A body calling itself the United Nations Association of Hong Kong has called for self-rule for the colony. It is a completely unrepresentative body of ambitious and irresponsible individuals. The Committee of Twenty-four adjourned sine die the Association's request for a hearing last year.)

(b) Electoral processes must involve the interplay of political forces; no politics are possible in Hong Kong that do not reflect the cleavage at present dividing the Chinese people, and this cannot provide the basis for the establishment of an efficient and truly democratic administration of the affairs of the territory. The introduction of Communist and Kuomintang politics as a live issue would be intolerable for the Peking Government and might bring an immediate end to Hong Kong's separate existence. (c) Hong Kong's position on the coast of China makes it a special case. Any debate about Hong Kong in the United Nations could lead to a cold war dispute. The Chinese have chosen not to make an issue of it so far and it would not be in the interests of the people of Hong Kong themselves for any member of the United Nations to stimulate international discussion of this problem.

In some cases we might also be able to draw attention to-

(d) the fact that the greater part of the territory is held on lease is an added

reason for our inability to treat it as an ordinary colonial territory.

15. The foregoing is circulated in anticipation of discussion on Hong Kong in the United Nations; it should not be used until instructions to do so are received.

(Copies to Commonwealth Relations Office and Colonial Office for

Overseas Distribution]

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