TNAG-0848-FCO40-1058-Future-of-Hong-Kong-New-Territories-leases-1979 — Page 57

Mr McLaren

HK&GD

CONFIDENTIAL

CHINA'S ATTITUDES TOWARDS HONG KONG

Reference......

(55)

R&R.

Hick Owol,

INDEX

3 APR 979

Rec i

1827.41

No 827.4

1.

-

Thank you for your comments of 23 March.

2.

I have abstracted a number of the more authoritative post-1949 statements on the status of Hong Kong from the body of the paper and attach a separate note.

3.

I also attach a draft for Section III a) questions concerning the lease of the New Territories. As you will know these questions are so bound up with the Chinese view of the status of Hong Kong as a whole, that the draft for sub-section a) is also largely an abstract from the paper you have seen. The Chinese have been noticeably reticent on the question of the lease, and this paper makes no attempt to review our own arguments for the granting of leases, whether finite or indefinite, by the Government of Hong Kong. The Chinese have yet to make their views known.

{Wells

P I Webb

Far Eastern Section Research Department

30 March 1979

Ni Williamson

Please resubmit with past papers.

W73573

CODE 18-77

ED. 12/76

CONFIDENTIAL