TNAG-1438-FCO40-1922-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 77

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about to be ingested by the largest Communist Country on earth. We have economic and personal freedom, they don't. We have freedom of the press, they don't. We have freedom of movement, they don't. We have a system of justice which states that you are innocent until proven guilty, they don't. The only thing we have in common as of this moment is a non-democratic

Governmental system and the argument now turns on whether a change to a democratically elected Governmental system will ensure our liberties, and if so, whether we should risk

confrontation with the overwhelming power over the border in

order to introduce such a protective shield.

So here we stand at one of the major forks in the road leading

towards Hong Kong's future. We have all had to resign ourselves

to the reality that the dream of an independent Hong Kong cannot be.

But we have been promised "a high degree" of autonomy except for defence and foreign relations. It is important that

this really is autonomy and not a clever political ploy by

Beijing to keep us under tight control and then lead us into their socialist system long before the 50 years are up. We have to make sure now that the concept of autonomy is understood,

recognised and accepted by everyone in Beijing, and my own personal belief is that this can only be done if we stand up and tell those representatives from Beijing who are trying to

bludgeon us into accepting their concept of autonomy which goes under the euphemism of "democratic consultation" that among other things autonomy includes our chosing the system which we think will best protect our economic and political liberty.

But there are two sides to autonomy: One is economic and the other is political. It is a very fine philosophical point which is more important. The Marxists think that politics is the be all and end all. Mao Tse Tung's power growing out of the barrel of a gun is a very apt summing up of this world view.

Paradoxically, Karl Marx recognised that economics can often be far more important than fire power and a perfect historic example is present day Japan. They tried the power which grows out of the barrel of the gun and lost everything.

And yet, forty years later they are far more dominant in South and East Asia than they would have been if they had won their 1931 to 1945 war. So let us not get confused about the concept of our