TNAG-0937-FCO40-1156-Visits-of-Sir-Murray-MacLehose--Governor-of-Hong-Kong--to-th-1980 — Page 231

}

CONFIDENTIAL

-2-

a major burden for the garrison for at least the next decade.

This case is cogent, and it is likely that the Chiefs of Staff will

be recommending that Ministers should agree to the proposed reinforce-

ment. The Governor will no doubt wish to report on his discussions

with the Defence Secretary, and may wish to enlist our help in urging

the MOD to speed up their procedures if he is not satisfied that the

proposals are being dealt with as expeditiously as they might be.

The division of financial responsibility will have to be agreed and

may be contentious.

New Territories Land Leases

4. The Secretary of State will recall that the Chinese Government

rejected as inappropriate and unnecessary the proposals we put to

them last summer for overcoming the problem of the imcreasingly short

span of land leases in the New Territories. Following this, it was

agreed that we should let the matter rest for a while, although the

opportunity was taken during Premier Hua's visit in November to let

him know that we remained concerned over the problem. A natural

opportunity to revert to the subject will occur if either the

Prime Minister or the Secretary of State are able to visit Peking

later this year. It would be helpful to discuss with the Governor

the best tactics for dealing with the problem over the coming months.

Immigration

5. Hong Kong's major preoccupation at the moment is with the

continuing flood of legal and illegal immigrants from China. A total

of over 280,000 have arrived in the past 2 years, which represents

a net increase of 6% in Hong Kong's population. This subject was

raised by the Prime Minister with Premier Hua in November.

He gave

a categorical assurance that appropriate measures would be taken,

/though

CONFIDENTIAL