TNAG-2703-FCO40-3909-Memoirs-of-Sir-Percy-Cradock--diplomat-and-sinologist-1993 — Page 34

cultures and political philosophies of the two powers

concerned, it is remarkable, not that there should have

been crises in the last fifteen years, but that they should

have been

interspersed,

and indeed

periods of cooperation and even

by

overshadowed,

durable

written

understandings. It is to the credit of both governments

that a story that began with arms and conquest in the

eighteen thirties has a fair chance of ending peacefully,

with a significant degree of agreement and with as high a

measure of protection for the territory as could

realistically be expected.

Looking back, I do not believe that British policy

in the years covered by this story, that is from 1979 to

1992, can be seriously faulted. Of course, it would have

been better if, with Peking's agreement, democracy could

have been long rooted in Hong Kong. It might have assuaged

some guilt, though it would have created many new problems,

if the right to settle in Britain had survived. But already

we are moving into the world of wish fulfilment. In the

situation inherited by the negotiators, both in Hong Kong

and China, I do not think much more could have been

done.

Nor am I despondent about Hong Kong's future. I

think a high degree of autonomy will be retained and that

China will not dishonour the undertakings of the Joint

Declaration. I think its people will, as ever, respond

effectively to the new challenges and that the city state

will prosper in an increasingly prosperous mainland

environment. Against the huge fact of that prosperity the

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