TNAG-1344-FCO40-1774-Despatch-from-Sir-Richard-Evans--British-Ambassador-to-China-1986 — Page 33

ET MON

CONFIDENTIAL

to remove the wretched remnant

•

Viewed as a place

of trade, I fear Hong Kong will be a failure."

Today, Hong Kong (with a land area more than ten times greater

than it had in 1842) has a population of 5.3 million, a GDP of

the same amount more than $20 billion and exports worth about $15 billion

only a little short of the value of China's exports. It is

a busy, prosperous and invigorating place. My own belief is

that it can look forward to a future which, if by no means

risk-free, is brighter than it has often seemed to have in the

past (during the Second World War, for example, and during the

earlier years of the Cultural Revolution) and a good deal

brighter than it could have hoped to have under any earlier

Chinese Government, Imperial, Nationalist, or Communist.

30. I am sending copies of this despatch to the Governor of

Hong Kong, to Her Majesty's Ambassadors at Washington and

Tokyo and to the United Kingdom Permanent Representative on

the North Atlantic Council.

I am, Sir,

Yours faithfully,

Richard Frane

RICHARD EVANS

CONFIDENTIAL