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before my visit. It is now important to keep up our international
efforts to get other countries to take more but, thereafter, there will certainly be pressure on us to take yet more, if possible on a continuing basis, not least because of the continuing influx to Hong Kong of illegal immigrants from China.
7. Visitors to Hong Kong are always impressed by the scale of new
construction projects and the speed with which they are finished.
Given the future change of sovereignty, I was particularly struck by the number of major projects starting the Eastern harbour tunnel,
the International Exhibition Centre, the planning for a totally new
industrial town at Junk Bay that show the degree to which the
people and government of Hong Kong are firmly looking beyond 1997,
albeit with some understandable concerns.
I was
8. The Governor steers his ship with a decisive hand, but there
seems to be an inequality of skills in some of the leading
officials. Piers Jacobs is a very different man to Sir John
Bremridge but in his quiet way he seemed perfectly competent.
struck by the comments of the Attorney General and others on the
difficulty of getting Hong Kong Chinese lawyers to serve as judges; and clearly there will be many other areas in which the local Chinese have to be brought on to the top of the administration and
of the banking world.
9. The next few years in Hong Kong will have their share of management problems for the Government and there will be sudden pressures, often about trivial or emotional issues. But the underlying connection with China is steadily developing, and Hong Kong again has a prosperous look.
INDONESIA
10. The South East Asia Heads of Mission conference was highly organised and well worthwhile for the opportunity it gave for Heads of Mission and participants from a far flung range of countries to meet informally and exchange views on challenges and problems.
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