CONFIDENTIAL
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Need for International Support
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More generally, you should recall that the Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong was welcomed in Hong Kong and very widely throughout the international community. Many foreign governments expressed their support for the Joint Declaration and what it seeks to achieve. (It would be particularly effective if you could point to expressions of support by your host government.) The successful implementation of the Joint Declaration will now depend to a considerable extent on continuing international support for it and for the arrangements made to implement it.
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7. You should stress how important it is for the successful implementation of the Joint Declaration that the people of Hong Kong should continue to have confidence in their own future, in the continuity of their lifestyle and in the territory's economic prospects. A crucial element of this is confidence in their freedom to travel for business and recreation. HMG hope and expect, therefore, that immigration authorities in third countries will be able to afford the same facilities for access and travel for BN (0)s as are currently available for Hong Kong BDTCS. Assurances that their freedom to travel will not be affected by this change of nomenclature will be beneficial to confidence among Hong Kong people and will contribute to the continuing success of the Hong Kong agreement. If you think it would be helpful, you could mention the supportive comments already made by the US, Australia and Japan. ["US Vice-President George Bush affirmed at his October 19 [1985] press conference that the United States Government will recognise the proposed British National (Overseas) passport. (Extract from text of press release issued by the American Consulate-General in Hong Kong on 23 October 1985). "The Australian Commission today welcomed the agreement in principle on the new BN(O) passport reached in the recent meeting of the Joint Liaison Group. Whilst making clear that the new BN (0) passport still had to be formally examined by the Australian authorities, the Commission said that the passport appeared to be acceptable from an Australian viewpoint and not to present any problems. Hong Kong people should be able to continue. visiting Australia as they presently do, subject to the usual visa requirements." (Extract from press statement issued by the Australian Commission in Hong Kong on 6 December 1985). Finally, on 27 April 1986 in an article written for a South China Morning Post supplement on "Japan Review 1986", the Japanese Consul-General in Hong Kong said that "the Japanese Government, for its part, is fully prepared to extend all possible cooperation in the efforts to ..
gain wide acceptability of (Hong Kong's) new passports by the world community."]
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The
CONFIDENTIAL
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