CONFIDENTIAL
11.
beginning to loom. Although never formally accepted by HMG the Chinese maintained that it was immovable. Since it was evident that the best arrangement achievable would not include the continuation of British administration there was a pressing need to prepare the Hong Kong community as a whole for such an outcome. The first step was taken by you, sir, at a Good Friday press conference in Hong Kong on 20 April 1984 when you announced publicly that British administration could not continue after 1997. Fortunately, you were by that time able to forecast that there would nevertheless be a formal agreement which would give Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy and provide for the continuation of the essential elements of its society. As the message sunk in, Hong Kong went into a state of gloom but with its usual resilience, and buoyed by increasingly healthy economy, it quickly took the announcement in its stride.
23. Once we were committed to the severance of the link with Britain in 1997, the people of Hong Kong had to be convinced that the prospect of substantial autonomy, of the preservation of their way of life, and of "Hong Kong people running Hong Kong" was a real one. They were already casting off the refugee mentality of the immediate post-war generation, who had been grateful to find decent administration in Hong Kong, and did not trouble themselves greatly with participating in it. In the summer of 1984, in order to keep abreast of a growing demand for greater participation in government, the Hong Kong Government published a Green Paper on the further development of representative government, providing for some members of the Legislative Council to be elected indirectly by geographical and functional constituencies; and subsequently produced revised proposals in a White Paper instituting such elections in 1985. The Chinese were wise enough not to denounce these proposals.
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