TNAG-0984-FCO40-1203-Immigration-from-China-to-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 34

- 9

17.

To repeat, Sir:

for us to succeed

-

and succeed

we must.

the message must get back to, and be understood

M

by, the young people in the communes, that illegal immigrants are not welcome in Hong Kong that we simply cannot have

them: that from now on life for them in Hong Kong will

not just be unpleasant, it will be intolerable: sooner or later they will be detected and they will be

repatriated.

18.

that

The severe problems brought by illegal immigration

but are well known. What has to be done is quite clear: in taking this essential, no longer avoidable, action which we propose today, let us be clear also the penalties we

-

as a community have to pay, the frustrations and problems with which we shall be presenting ourselves, are very

considerable too. It is a choice of evils. In many ways

the Hong Kong of the future will not be the sort of Hong

Kong we all have known until today.

19.

I make this point because the going, inevitably,

is going to get rough: and when that happens, and some begin to cry out for a return to the old days, and the old ways, it will be important to look back upon these past two years, and especially the past few months, and recall the worry and concern we all felt; to recall the demand made by the vast majority in all walks of life that something truly effective should be done to safeguard ourselves against the floods of illegal

/immigrants.