TNAG-1246-FCO40-1560-Press-reports-on-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 112

CONFIDENTIAL

10

recently stated intention to remove rent controls meant tenants had only one course left open to them

they must seek China's protection. To anyone north of our border, the situation here must seem highly reminiscent of conditions in China before 1949, a situation which the Chinese themselves resolved by executing an estimated 30 million land and property

owners.

Commenting on the editorial, the New Evening Post disagreed that there was a relationship between non-interventionism and freedom. Under the pretext of positive non-interventionism, the Government's inaction to the plea from factory owners to curb high land prices and the public's call to freeze a power charge rise was unpopular with the public. It said the decision to let HK people administer HK was made because communists in China realised that they were not familiar with Adam Smith's economy. The paper said different systems could exist in a nation and cited as example that the Greater London Council was controlled by the Labour Party under the Conservative Government. Laborites could still implement their policy in Greater London even without sovereign rights over the city. It said the SCMP leader was only intended for consumption of English-speaking foreigners.

13.

COMMENTS ABOUT THE FUTURE:

Trade Minister is confident: The British Minister of Trade, Mr. Peter Rees, told the

press on Thursday that the message he would take back to British businessmen was one of confidence about HK. Visiting British M.P. Peter Bottomley, interviewed on RTHK's Here and Now on 7 January, reiterated that people in HK should wait for official announcements coming out of the talks in Beijing.

Members of legal profession_speak on future: The Attorney-General said at the opening of the Legal Year the past year had been a troubled period economically for HK and it had come at a time when the property bubble had been punctured and when rumours about 1997, many of them false, had been unsettling people. The chairman of the Bar Association, Mr. Martin Lee, said professional people should consider before they planned to leave HK that they would be leaving behind 51⁄2 million people who had helped to make their careers successful here; they should stay behind and help preserve things which we cherished so much.

Financial Secretary mentions 1997 in newspaper interview: In an interview with

the Asian Wall Street Journal, the Financial Secretary was asked what he considered was the HK economy's biggest problem in 1983. He said it was lack of confidence arising from the 1997 problem which was affecting investment.

Urbco Chairman calls for tripartite rule: The SCMP said on 8 January that Urbco

Chairman, Mr. Hilton Cheong-leen, became the latest public figure to throw his hat into the ring of 1997 speculation by saying some form of British participation in the territory's administration after 1997 was necessary to preserve HK's prosperity. He said that China, Britain and the HK people should all have a part to play after 1997. While the left-wing Commercial Daily endorsed his remarks, the HK Times said he had overlooked the fact that residents wished to preserve the status quo in order to maintain their free way of living too.

CONFIDENTIAL