TNAG-1167-FCO40-1447-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 71

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see, just as has been the confidence with which their agencies

have invested in Hong Kong.

22.

with;

we

As I said, Hong Kong will also have its uncertainties.

In other places these cover a wide range of possibilities such

as the stability of Government, the possibility of wide fiscal

changes, restrictions on employment and remittance of profit,

even threats to economic and social freedom. We are remarkably

free from these, but we have the risk of dependence on external

markets and this is a risk we have successfully lived with;

also have the requirement to reconcile the understandable

position of the Chinese Government on Hong Kong with preservation

of what makes its contribution possible as a free port and an

industrial, commercial and financial centre. It has always

been apparent that this question would become active in the

early or mid 1980s - one cannot be precise. It is therefore

extremely satisfactory that Sino/British relations, and Sino/

British relations over Hong Kong, have evolved so well,

that the personal and official relationship of officials and

businessmen in Hong Kong with Chinese officials whether here

or in Guangdong or Beijing are so good. It makes possible

dispassionate and constructive discussion, at the right time,

of this problem. The delicacy of the problem for the Chinese

Government, the goodwill with which it is being approached,

and the concern of responsible people in Hong Kong, are all

equally obvious. It is common ground that a solution must be

found. Moreover the mutual advantage of an arrangement

satisfactory to all concerned seems vast.

time, and we must keep our nerve.

and

Meanwhile there is

23. In the future, whether in the development of our trade

all over the world, or in

new cooperation with China,

/or in