TNAG-1891-FCO40-2684-Visits-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe-and-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretaries-1989 — Page 43

TRANSCRIPT B:

P.C. FORRIGE SRC

HONG KONG

4 JULY 1989

3

FORMIGE BECRETANY (COMTD):

The work we had to do in face of what looked like very

difficult odds at the outset to secure the Joint Declaration was

The fact that it has now very warmly appreciated and still is. been placed in such jeopardy by what has happened in Peking is as

much of a shock to us as it is to the people of Hong Kong and the people of Hong Kong recognise that we must therefore all do everything we can together to try and consolidate the position.

The fact that I cannot accept every single component of what

the people of Hong Kong would prescribe as idéal does not mean that

we are not doing a very great deal.

DRAI TBL01 (BUNDAY MORNING POST):

Sir Geoffrey, what is your response to the Raport by

Professor Bernard Carey (phon) of Queen Mary College, London, which says Britain's economy could actually benefit from the arrival of

3.25 million Hong Yong Chinese?

PORRIGE SECRETARY:

I was struck by the Report, which I confess I have not yet read completely, but I was grateful to the "Sunday Morning Post for

printing, as I understood it, all the conclusione

Chapter 10 of

the Report

succeeded in summarising the difficulties and the problems with

in full because it seemed to me that that chapter

ample lucidity and if anything, fortified the anxieties which 1

exprenoed in wy apoach yoaterday.