TNAG-0845-FCO40-1055-Visits-of-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 14

world is going to come through Hong Kong. I think it's

probably as simple as that. Certainly if I can add to that,

they do look, I believe, to the free world principally for the

supply of the goods, the heavy materials and indeed the service

industries which they are going to rely on in their economic

progress in the form of modernisation. It is to the free world

that they are looking and Hong Kong is their avenue to the free

world. They are not looking to the Soviet Union for their

modernisation because they know that they can get much better

goods and much better help from the free world that they could

ever get from the Soviet Union.

Question: How far ahead you think they might be looking though in that

sense? What I am wondering is whether there was anything in

your remarks that could be interpretted further ? Is there

anything, say beyond in the next 10 years?

Mr Blaker: Beyond the next 10 years? No. I wasn't intending to imply

anything beyond the next 10 years.

Question: I believe you said the other day that Britain was trying to make

or persuade other countries to take more refugees from Hong Kong.

Do you think the number of refugees being taken from Britain

? currently

is vibrantly enough ?

Mr Blaker: We are taking 10,000 more in addition to the number of nearly

5,000 which we were already committed. As we said these will

come from Hong Kong. This was in fact the figure that we were

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