TNAG-0937-FCO40-1156-Visits-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-th-1980 — Page 206

CONFIDENTIAL

Parliamentary Interent in Hong Kong (Brief No 4)

4.

The problem that we and the Hong Kong Government face is that most of the MPs who show an active interest are potentially hostile because they are influenced by pressure groups in Hong Kong. The small group of MPs who support the Government's policy are valuable but not particularly active, though Sir Paul Bryan does his best. I think our objective should be to broaden the interest in the House

of Commons. It might be helpful at some stage to have a half-day debate on Hong Kong, since Ministers would thereby be able to give a fuller explanation of policies than is possible in hit-or-miss PQs. But I would not recommend this at present because we might get drawn into the question of democratic reform of local government on which we may have very little to say in coming months. But a broader spread of interest might at least lead to more supplementaries of a sympathetic nature (on the relatively few occasions when there are oral PQS) and could at least counter balance the activists.

contribute articles to the press might be encouraged to write sympathetically about Hong Kong.

MPs who

5. But I think this needs deeper consideration. After all, for only 28 MPs to have visited Hong Kong, with its population of

5 million, in the past five years as guests of the Hong Kong Govern- ment, is pretty thin. Mr Blaker might suggest to the Governor that HKGD and the Hong Kong Commissioner in London should jointly consider the possibilities of securing and maintaining greater Parliamentary interest in the Colony; and we might then be able to take a good look at some ideas and put them into practice.

7 January 1980

1.

DF Murray

I agree subject to the following comments:-

a) Legal immigration. 150 a day amounts to some 55,000 a year. This is a sizeable figure, about 1% on a population of some 5 million, but is it really unacceptable, so long as illegals can be effectively controlled?

b) Leases. I think that the investment crunch is likely to come in the late '80s. Most Hong Kong investors expect (and get) a return on capital based on a short

CONFIDENTIAL

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