Cotton Textiles.
when the Chinese temporarily relaxed their exit controls.
Recent
operations to remove them to approved areas have been the subject of
representations to M.Ps, some of whom (including Mr Bottomley) wrote to
Lord Lansdowne, A copy of Lord Lansdowne's reply is attached.
9.
More than a million Chinese immigrants have entered the Colony
since the war. More than half a million have been rehoused in
resettlement and low-cost housing estates paid for by the Hong Kong
Government, whose current plans provide for housing 100,000 people a
year. About half a million squatters remain to be resettled in housing
estates.
10. (Mr Bottomley has not mentioned this.) Talks are in progress
between representatives of the Hong Kong Cotton Advisory Board and the
United Kingdom Cotton Board (at the latter's request) about the
categorisation of Hong Kong exports of cotton textiles to the United
Kingdom within the overall limits on such exports under the "Lancashire
Agreement." (For the Secretary of State's information only. There is
strong feeling about this in Hong Kong, where the Cotton Board's
initiative is regarded as a unilateral attempt by Lancashire to change
the terms of the Agreement during its currency.)
11.
It would be best to avoid any discussion of the issues while
these talks are proceeding.
Defence, Intelligence and Hong Kong Department,
COLONIAL OFFICE.
14th November, 1963
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