TNAG-0845-FCO40-1055-Visits-of-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 153

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would scarcely recognise Hong Kong today. Yet I was still

not prepared for what I have seen in the past two days. The

development that has been achieved is astonishing by any

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standards, and would be even for a territory that did not

face the immense physical difficulties that have to be over-

come before you can even begin to build anything here. It

proves that one thing at least has not changed: the character

of Hong Kong people. Your determination, ingenuity, invent-

iveness and capacity for sheer hard work remain as great as

ever.

There is one innovation though that was certainly

less welcome - the refugee camps. I do not want to go over

the causes of the Vietnamese exodus, nor the tragic stories

of those hundreds of thousands who were prepared to face such

appalling risks in the hope of gaining the elementary right to

live in freedom. The problems this exodus has created for

Hong Kong are not of Hong Kong's making, and Hong Kong of

course already faced enough difficulties in coping with the

demands of your own people and with the influx of new immi-

grants from China. Yet when this new problem was thrust upon

you, the response of the Hong Kong Government and people was

magnificent, a shining example of humanity as well as an

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impressive example of efficiency in the way the relief

operation has been organised and administered.

I should like to take this opportunity to emphasise

the British Government's unqualified support for the Hong Kong

Government in coping with this problem. You will recall that

it was the Prime Minister's initiative that led the UN

Secretary General to convene the Geneva Conference in July

which in turn produced the doubling of resettlement places and

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