19 CAVENDISH AVENUE
LONDON NW8 9JD
01-286 9020
-4-
of Hong Kong is now in Chinese hands and because there are only forth thousand Europeans out of a population of five million that Hong Kong is already a Chinese colony. But still it wouldn't work, as the Chinese know, if it were not being run by the British.
In giving security of tenure the Chinese have a psychological block. They regard both the cession of land and the leases on the New Territories, to the British as having been forced on a weak China by a strong British Empire. This is something they cannot tolerate or explain away to their followers. As they do not recognise our right to be anywhere in Hong Kong or the New Territories how can they extend the right to be there which they don't admit in the first place?
It is
I believe that there is a solution. for Britain to renounce now any claims to sovereignty that we have over Hong Kong Island and the Kowloon Peninsula. We should say that we agree with China that this was a piece of imperialist robbery. Having said that, we should point out to the Chinese how anxious we are to help them with their industrial development and how valuable Hong Kong is to them for this purpose. We should say very politely to them that they will now understand from their own involvement in international commerce that business- men do want some security of tenure before they embark on costly projects even though the businessmen may be foolish not just to trust in continuing Chinese good will. We should say, too, that while we renounce all our sovereignty we would like the Chinese to,
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.