TNAG-1438-FCO40-1922-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 89

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aspirations and are envious of our success will get what they deserve, namely, an empty shell and a liability. Think about this gentlemen. What I am saying is that we both have a duty to perform. We Hong Kong belongers must under all circumstances preserve what we have and build on it. You, the new occupiers must tread very gently. We are all carrying nitroglycerine, which the slightest wrong movement will explode.

The greatest problem we face is one that is never mentioned but is nonetheless in the back of all our minds: At the moment we are negotiating with a relatively friendly and sympathetic Chinese Government. In the ying and yang of the Communist Chinese history we are lucky enough to be almost at the extreme liberal swing of the pendulum, but this pendulum will inevitably swing back and within the next ten years we may be facing an unsympathetic Government in Beijing. A Government which may well be pre-occupied by internal strife and may not care about either the economic strength, which Hong Kong will impart to China in 1997, nor about presenting an understanding liberal face to the rest of the world to make it easier to persuade Taiwan to come back into the fold. We may have to deal with such a Government also after 1997. And this is where we come to the great divide: There are those, and they now have the greatest influence in the various Basic Law committees and in UMELCO, who believe that we must follow the Chinese line no matter what because confrontation will be bad for Hong Kong's economy. How will they deal with a hostile uncaring Government in Beijing if they have given away even the pretence of Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong? How are we going to defend our liberties and the system which makes our economy thrive when even one small puff of Beijing's representative here makes our incipient politicians backpedal furiously? These words which affected our stock market and threatens to increase our "Green Card" exodus considerably suddenly made even the mention of the founding of political parties difficult. And let's face it, there are a great many members of our establishment, in the Civil Service, in UMELCO, and especially in the business community, who welcomed Beijing's interference because they strongly support an "apolitical" stance since they don't want to alter the present power structure because they like the idea of working in the background, being able to alter policies with a discrete telephone call and generally making use of the "old