there is a certain reticence among the governments who are coming forward
with schemes like this to attach numbers to them, for reasons which I think
But there are schemes, as you have said, Mr Chairman,
are understandable.
in France, a German scheme, as I have just said, a Belgian scheme and a
Luxembourg scheme. I was in Rome yesterday and one of the things I was
talking to the Italian Government about was precisely this and I had an
encouraging response. It is not a very rapid process because finding ways
within each country's nationality law and immigration rules to achieve a
result which is what we want is quite a difficult and complex process
within each government but it is happening and the numbers are, I believe,
increasing. None of these schemes will be dramatic in itself but I believe
the overall effect of the schemes will add up to a significant extra boost
to confidence in Hong Kong.
75.
Presumably these schemes - you mentioned Germany, France,
Belgium, Italy are aimed at arresting the haemorrhage between now and
1997 but there is, of course, the other international package which we have
spoken about and which you have spoken about, which might be organised to
meet a very unpleasant situation that might arise in 1997. Have you heard
about that?
(Mr Maude) No, nothing further about that. I believe one should not
overstate the likelihood of something disastrous happening.
All our
efforts are designed to avoid any such massive outflow and one of the
reasons I am going to Peking in two weeks' time is to renew the dialogue
with the Chinese Government in a way that will, I hope, re-establish
confidence that the governance of Hong Kong and preservation of its systems
after 1997 will be complete and the government will be a good government.
If we can re-establish that confidence, as I believe we can do by showing
close co-operation and close dialogue with the Chinese Government, I
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