TNAG-2907-FCO40-4181-Hong-Kong-Valedictory-despatch-by-Stephen-Day--Senior-Britis-1993 — Page 5

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The Rt Hon Douglas Hurd CBE MP

LONDON

British Trade Commission Hong Kong

"You have co-operation without fuss, without drama, in the

business field between China and Hong Kong, and we must try to

translate that same spirit of co-operation without fuss,

without drama, into the discussions at Government level."

(Your statement to the Press in Hong Kong on 22 May 1992)

Sir,

1. The first world atlas by an Englishman, produced by John

Speed and sold in popshead alley by the Exchange, shows the

known world bordered with cartoons of the great cities of the

East Venice, Damascus, Jerusalem, Aden, Ormuz, Malacca, to

Macao at its furthest extreme. What better place to collect

one's thoughts?

The lessons of Aden

2. In the autumn of 1967 the last group of British Commandos

lifted off in a Wessex from Khormaksar, until then Britain's

largest base outside our shores, leaving behind a city and country in ruins, and a forwarding address in Geneva for

whoever won the bloody civil war raging between the

supporters of NLF and FLOSY. Treaties signed with the rulers

of the hinterland were cancelled; commitments to the fledgling government of South Arabia were withdrawn: and we

abandoned 1.5 million Arabs and assorted inhabitants of the

Colony of Aden to a fate that led to the exile of one-third of

the population, a fall in income steeper than that of any

country in UN statistics, and a descent into a nightmare

of pseudo-Marxist tyranny enforced by East German and

Bulgarian thugs.