Sir,
香港總督府
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
1 December 1986
Royal Visit to Hong Kong 1986
Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh paid their second visit to Hong Kong from 21-23 October 1986. They found a very different place from the one they had seen in 1975. In the past decade, Hong Kong has made enormous progress on all fronts, in terms of its economy, its physical development its education and welfare programmes, and cultural and leisure opportunities for its citizens. It was this progress which we aimed to show our royal visitors, as well as the growing maturity of a community which after 140 years of British administration now faces a new future as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China. We hoped not only to inform our Royal Visitors but to entertain them, and above all to enable them to depart with some feeling of the dynamism and vigour of Hong Kong.
2.
In 1975, Hong Kong was very much a British Colonial territory. Its dealings with China were minimal. The suspicions engendered by the Cultural Revolution and its repercussions in Hong Kong in 1967 were still alive in people's memory; and the impact on the world economy of the increase in world oil prices had greatly affected the local economy and the Government's planning. But it was already emerging from these difficulties and firmly set on an ambitious programme of development. 11 years later, Hong Kong still has its anxieties, and vulnerabilities. But it has not only survived its earlier problems: it has become a major international city which has demonstrated a remarkable ability to survive economic and political uncertainties.
/3.
The Rt Hon Sir Geoffrey Howe QC MP Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London
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