Headmistress: 0428-605415
Bursar: 0428-606636
THE ROYAL NAVAL SCHOOL HASLEMERE, SURREY, GU27 1HQ
18 December 1992.
The Rt Hon. Virginia Bottomley, JP, MP
Department of Health
Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS
Teaching Staff: 0428-605805 Boarding Staff: 0428-606538
21 DEC 1992
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH
Dear Mrs Bottomley
Thank you for the booklets you have sent out explaining the Government's policy on Maastricht. Basically, you are addressing "the converted" in this School, since there are already so many representatives not only of the British at home and abroad, but of other nationalities - increasingly, the German and the Japanese that we well understand the value of opening our horizons.
I am also happy to tell you that I believe in the representative democracy - in short, I do not like referenda. I do not think good judgements are made by an appeal to all and sundry. They should be invited to give their views, and let their elected representatives make the final decision on their behalf.
I must say that the notion of a three-line whip does not consort well with this view!
However, I am taking my chance as one of your constituents to draw something to your attention too, in `return. Recently I visited Hong Kong: at the time, in fact, when Chris Patten was holding the first of his open meetings about his new proposals. I had an office in HMS Tamar, and therefore met Captain Sunter RN, who is in charge, as well as a number of other personnel. Since I was there to recruit, I saw many schools, largely British, but also some very impressive Chinese. Everywhere there was evidence of the determination; flair and sheer economic drive of the Chinese. The British at HMS Tamar are rightly indignant that the Chinese personnel who * work alongside them on equal terms, and are important for the smooth running and efficiency of HMS Tamar, are denied the right to a British passport.
No doubt the colony is full of employers who would say the same. I also feel that we have a deep moral obligation to the Hong Kong Chinese. We exploited the area for our own trading purposes; encouraged the drug trade since that would enhance the place as a trading post: I did not meet a single
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