TNAG-2477-FCO40-3607-The-Hong-Kong-Association-1992 — Page 13

SPEECH BY PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AT THE DRAGON BOAT DINNER, 11 JUNE 1992

I am honoured to have been invited to speak to you this evening

at what I know is of one of the most important events celebrating

the UK's relationship with Hong Kong. That I speak to you as

President of the Board of Trade is a more than happy coincidence

for trade and Hong Kong are synonymous. It is Hong Kong's past

and present built upon trade which has secured its prosperity and

which I am sure will continue to do so well into the future.

in Hong Kong's life.

We are now approaching a crossroads

Inevitably everyone's thoughts are on 1997 and beyond. This is

preeminently a time for looking forward and it is to the future

I shall turn later on. Yet it is also a time for taking stock;

for assessing the past and the journey to the present. That is

something which we in Britain shall be doing as well as every

Hong Kong citizen.

And how do we here in the UK view the past? With, I think, some

pride. Under British control Hong Kong has come quite a way over

the last 150 years. Timothy Mo called his book about the

foundation of Hong Kong "An Insular Possession". In the strictest

sense Hong Kong Island was, and of course still is, insular. But

insular also means narrow and inward looking. That Hong Kong has

never been. It has, rather, been the antithesis. It has always

looked outwards, stretching beyond its narrow geographical

boundaries to develop as a major trading economy; dependent upon

interchange with other economies for the lifeblood of its

existence. That Hong Kong has developed in this way is in no

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