TNAG-1748-FCO40-2467-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1988 — Page 222

COHADB

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SPEECH BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE AT LUNCH WITH COMMUNITY

PERSONALITIES: 30 MAY 1988

!

1. I am delighted to be back in Hong Kong. It occupies a very special position among my concerns as Foreign Secretary, and among the foreign policy priorities of the British Government.

2.

My first involvement with Hong Kong as Foreign Secretary was in 1983, when the negotiations on the territory's future were only just getting under way. At that time the future contained only one element of certainty for Hong Kong. That was the legal

inevitability that the lease on the New Territories over 90% of Hong Kong's land area

ea - would expire in 1997.

3.

;

-

Under the bustle and purpose on the surface of Hong Kong's life there was deep uncertainty about the future. This had begun to affect commercial decision-making and to undermine economic

confidence.

4.

4

It was to dispel this uncertainty that the British Government embarked on the negotiations with China which led to the conclusion of the Joint Declaration. We did so with the full support of the Hong Kong Government; and, I believe, with the understanding of the people of Hong Kong. They recognised that only discussion and agreement with China could create conditions for a more assured

future for Hong Kong.

5. I do not need to recall here the course of the negotiations. Throughout them there was the closest consultation with the then Governor and the Executive Council. The requirement of confidentiality was naturally a cause of frustration for people in Hong Kong. But in my visits to the territory I did all I could, within those constraints, to inform them of the course that the

negotiations were taking.

6.

us all.

The eventual provisions of the Joint Declaration are known to

But I wonder whether almost four years of familiarity has

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