TNAG-0850-FCO40-1060-Future-of-Hong-Kong-New-Territories-leases-1979 — Page 33

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This last point cannot be too strongly stressed. The last opportunity to discuss the matter, as informally as you like, has already passed. It was

MacLehose's trip to Peking in March this year. With him were the perfect team

to do so: the Foreign Office's Political Advisor in Hongkong - Dr. David Wilson,

and the Senior Unofficial Memeber of the Executive Council, Sir Yuet-Keung Kan,

a well-known local entrepreneur and multimillionaire. Is it conceiveable that

any opportunity to discuss, solve and then announce a solution to the Lease

Problem would have been missed by this Dynamic Trio? And yet we read, again in

Hansard, that after Mr. Martin Flannery M.P. had asked Mr. Blaker whether

h the anacronism of Hong Kong had been discussed during the Cov mon's visit, Blaker replied:

"I certainly do not mag-rd Hong Kong as an anachronism. It is

a success story. But, since the visit of the Governor was not for the purposes of negotiation, it would not have been appropriate

for the long-term future of Hong Kong to be discussed."

(Oral Questions. Hansard. 13 Jun 1979)

the

And, finally, let us turn to a very important document. It is the Third Report from the Expenditure Committee. ( of the House of Commons) on 'Hong Kong and Cyprus' dated Mar 11 1976. It is House of Commons Paper, No. 270 of 1976 and is available from Her Majesy's Stationary Office,price 25p. It is a small blue booklet of some 50 pages, basically the report, after the examination of expert witnesses, by a select committee of Members of Parliament, of certain questions to do with Hong Kong and Cyprus garrisons. It contains the minutes of evidence and many appendices. But, look out; a grey-faced figure approaches, bearing a cloak and a dagger and produces Foreign Office credentials. He snatches the booklet away and is busy with scissors for a while. Men it comes back, it bears the following

superscriptios:

*

What?

THIRD REPORT FROM THE EXPENDITURE COMMITTEE (DEFENCE AND EXTERNAL AFFAIRS SUB-COMMITTEE)

THIRD REPORT

xiii

The use of asterisks in this Report indicates that a passage, word or figure has been omitted at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.