Colony rumour challenged

Press, 4 July 1983, Page 10

Colony rumour challenged

NZPA Hong Kong The Hong Kong Government has refused to confirm or deny recent reports that the British Government has softened its hardline stand on sovereignty over its colony, the South China “Morning Post” reports. After several respected newspapers and magazines had reported that Mrs Margaret Thatcher had eased her stance and indirectly acknowledged China’s sovereignty over the prosperous

colony, the Hong Kong Government challenged the accuracy of the reports. It said that they were speculative and the British position on sovereignty was “well known.”

However, at the week-end a high Government official declined to confirm that Mrs Thatcher would be continuing with the tough line on Hong Kong that caused her problems during talks with Peking last September. Then she declared the treaties by which Hong Kong Island, and the main-

land Chinese areas of Kowloon and the New Territories, were valid under international law.

She made a distinction between the lease on the New Territories, which officially runs out in 1997 and the other two, which she said dealt with sovereignty in perpetuity.

The Chinese described her remarks then as “totally unacceptable.” The “Post” also said that observers were worried at the timing of the announce-

ment that the long stalled talks on the colony’s future had resumed. The announcement was made in London and Peking and only “confirmed” in Hong Kong some 15 minute later. , The “Post” quoted commentators as saying that Hong Kong was always vulnerable to wild rumours about decisions in Peking or London on its future, as evidenced by recent Hong Kong dollar falls. The possibility of an information vacuum, however brief, was worrying.