香港
(Confidential)
My Lord,
CONFIDENTIAL
HONG KONG
19 January, 1931.
THE ANNUAL REVIEW FOR 1980 RONG!
FONG KONS
1980 was only good in parts. In spite of slack demand in the markets of Europe and North America, inflation, and the effect of excessive immigration from China, substantial progress was made in the Government's main programmes, unemployment was comparatively low, and eventually illegal immigration appeared to be contained. But in the second half of the year the effect of recession abroad began to make itself felt more keenly and as the year ended an uneasy mood of concern affected a wide band of the population.
Boled / Immigration
272. Immigration from China was the most newsworthy
item of the year. The Garrison was fully deployed and then reinforced to contain the flow, and large numbers of police were diverted from normal duty. The number of immigrants rose from 31,000 in 1977 (of which 6,600 were illegals, that is to say, had no exit permits and attempted to enter clandestinely) to 178,000 (102,000) in 1979 and 101,300 (57,000) up to 23rd October in 1980 when policy towards illegal immigrants was drastically changed.
3. The new measures included compulsory carriage of identity cards by Hong Kong residents, return to China of illegal immigrants whenever and wherever found, and removal of the incentive to come by making it an offence to employ an illegal (i.e. somebody without an identity card). These measures were
carefully explained to the Chinese in Peking and Guangzhou in advance and were welcomed by them. were also widely supported in Hong Kong. With reasonable
They
The
HOM
The Le State For
Carrington
/ Chinese
gir and Commonwealth
CONFIDENTIAL
1314
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