TNAG-0841-FCO40-1050-Visit-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-Chi-1979 — Page 32

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Mr Liang (who took up the discussion at this point) said it was true that numbers of illegals had recently increased. The Chinese Government did not approve of this. It was a matter of educating those concerned. They had already adopted measures to deal with the problem and these had yielded some results. As for legal movement, there was a' tradition of people visiting Hong Kong. Many people applied. If the Chinese Government were not already imposing restrictions then many more would be going. He hoped the Hong Kong Government understood the wish of people to visit their relatives..

10.

The Governor concluded by saying that both sides were agreed on the essentials. Neither approved of illegal movement.. With legal movement the number of those staying permanently must be small. There should also be arrangements for short genuine visits, i.e. one or two weeks.

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5.