TNAG-0847-FCO40-1057-Visits-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-th-1979 — Page 37

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particularly from the non-aligned states, to come to Hong Kong

and hear the refugees' stories for themselves.

5. Mr Blaker asked for the Governor's comments on his (Mr Blaker's)

idea that an island should be purchased by the United Nations,

and the bulk of the refugees sent there. The Governor thought

this was a good idea, but it seemed unlikely that such an island

could be found. Ideally the Americans would reopen Guam and use

it as a reception centre as they had done after the fall of

South Vietnam, but there seemed little likelihood of this happening.

6. New Territories Leases

The Governor said that this was a much more important matter than

Vietnamese refugees and immigration from China which were temporary

problems. The question of the leases had a direct bearing on

Hong Kong's relations with China and Hong Kong's role in the

United Kingdom's relations with China. Mr Blaker asked why an

Order in Council was necessary. The Governor replied that there

was no provision in English common or statute law for indeter-

minate leases. It was also necessary to provide for continuity

of jurisdiction beyond the validity of the 1838 Order in Council.

A new Order in Council was desirable for this purpose and essen-

tial for the second. Mr Blaker said that there would be no

parliamentary problems provided the Chinese approved of the

action proposed. The Governor said that he had taken it for

granted that the Government would not go ahead with the proposal

unless they could state publicly that the Chinese Government had

been consulted and had not disagreed.

On timing, he thought it

important that the details should be agreed before Mr HUA Guofeng

15 the