TNAG-1239-FCO40-1552-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 52

that Hong Kong is just going to be absorbed into the present

Shum Chun Economic Zone?

Again a slight change of the emphasis in the

policy of Central Government of China might seriously affect

the rights that are expressed in the first stage of the

proposed agreement. However, confidence in the Hong Kong

Dollar and goes hand in hand with these other rights,

especially the separation of the judiciary from the

executive, freedom of movement and the right to continue to

hold land. The Reform Club in its release the other day

stressed the concern felt by the Police Force and other

disciplinary forces, and indeed generally the whole of the

civil services as it exists today. What, the Reform Club

asks, about their future roll, they themselves are very

worried. Although this is also obviously in Stage 2 of the

proposed method of proceeding with the talks, it should be

settled in the near future. China does not have a uniformed

police force as such, the Chinese Government use the Army and

certain, in effect, CID, in plain clothes. This is part of

the reason why it so amazes many Hong Kong people to see the

number of soldiers in uniform that abound in any big city in

China. The Reform Club proposes that the whole of the civil

services, including in particular the Police Force and other

disciplinary services like the Fire Department, and the

Correctional Services, continue as they are today and

generally, a civil servant is assured that when the time

comes for his retirement, he gets the pension which he is

earning even at this very moment!

The British Nationality Act and in particular,

the restrictions actually endorsed on Hong Kong passports

4 -