TNAG-0845-FCO40-1055-Visits-of-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-officials-to-Hong-Kong-1979 — Page 154

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the pledging of substantial new funds for the UN High

Commissioner for Refugees, and which, above all, brought the

weight of world opinion to bear on the Vietnamese Government

and convinced them to take measures to stem the outflow.

Now, in addition to our undertaking to accept up to 10,000

Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong into Britain, we are

keeping up the pressure on other countries to accept more

people from Hong Kong.

It is of course our constitutional responsibility

to defend Hong Kong's interests in this and other similar

matters of foreign relations.

But I am well aware that Hong

Hong Kong is synonymous with

Kong does not need nannying.

success. By all the laws of reason, Hong Kong should not be

here: if all the facts about the territory were fed into a

computer its size, its physical circumstances, its lack of

natural resources, the numbers crammed into its small space

the computer would, I am sure, prove that it is impossible

for such a place to exist. Yet here you are, one of the most

thriving, dynamic places in Asia. The explanation needless to

say lies in the one priceless resource that Hong Kong does

have: your people.

Anglo-

A very important aspect of our responsibility for

Hong Kong is, of course, over relations with China.

Chinese relations at the moment are excellent, and as far as

Hong Kong is concerned, we have been greatly encouraged by the

obvious Chinese desire to ensure that confidence remains high

in the territory. The Chinese Government share our interest in

maintaining Hong Kong's prosperity and stability. They

recognise that Hong Kong has an important contribution to make

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