Lavender said when we discussed it, ‘if you don’t do it, you will probably spend the rest of your life regretting it’.
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I suppose it’s one of the greatest journeys you could take anywhere.
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Hong Kong at present represents about 19% of China’s GDP
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I was left in charge of Alice and Whisky, and Her Majesty’s colony.
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I am, as it were, the Queen of Hong Kong.
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As soon as the Prince of Wales saw the news in the papers he sweetly sent Lavender a telegram expressing his delight and relief.
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I can put my feet up and David Ford can govern Hong Kong for a bit.
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I wonder what he would have done if he had become Governor, a job which he has said publicly he once turned down in a Paris lavatory.
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C. H. Tung continued to bat for a deal whatever it is. Maybe he would stop just short of the slaughter of the first born.
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We agreed that he’s fortunate he doesn’t have to give Oklahoma back to China in 1997.
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And what do you want on your gravestone, Governor? I’d better think about that.
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Alice and Lavender flew back to London, leaving me in charge of the dogs, who seem surprised to discover that I too am capable of going for walks.
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She was apparently asked at Immigration where her mother was. She replied, ‘I’m sure that she is playing golf and walking her dogs in Hong Kong.’ Lavender said, ‘I hope that she doesn’t think that that is all I do all day.’
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About halfway through the ceremony I looked over the heads of those who had come to see their relations honoured and caught sight of four or five of Alice’s schoolfriends creeping down the stairs in their Doc Martens from the tower where she has her bedroom and out into the main part of the house to make their escape. It’s fun seeing normal life carrying on while I’m doing these duties. I doubt anything happens like this in Buckingham Palace.
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There can’t be many other examples of colonial situations where the local citizens want the colonial power to stay on.
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The rather shameless way in which the French have just done this makes one wonder whether the word perfidious was attached to the right side of the Channel.
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David Cameron, who is a friend of Edward Llewellyn and worked in the Conservative Research Department before becoming a special adviser in the Treasury and the Home Office, is also in Hong Kong, presumably for the sevens.
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It’s no such thing but it just happens to be unpopular with France, whose officials regularly make it more difficult for me to remain a Francophile.
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French ministers are pretty well the only ones from anywhere who come through Hong Kong on the way into China while studiously avoiding seeing me or any other members of the government. They must think we don’t notice. Europe’s aspirations to have a world view and reputation based on values is regularly shredded by corporate sales departments.
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Perhaps this is socialism with British characteristics.
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I have started calling her ‘Central’, like the politburo. Martin doesn’t think this is very romantic. But she is certainly central for me.
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‘That things in the colony aren’t what they should be / no one can doubt any longer, / and though in spite of everything we do move forward / maybe – as more than a few believe – the time has come / to bring in a political reformer’.
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I think they’ll break the rules even if they are members of the GATT.
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The story is that Deng’s family are busy looking for a cosmetic expert, and not the sort that you need when you are alive.
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We are still running Hong Kong.
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They see – here we go again – treasures beyond human craving just over the horizon.
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Prime ministers, foreign ministers and finance ministers all round the world have time to meet Anson when she is in their countries, but the director of the HKMAO [Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office] is here for almost 180 hours and over 20 meals and can’t find time.
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I began with a few words in French and after the first sentence everyone present burst into thunderous applause, as if it is amazing that an Englishman can manage even a few words in their language.
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It became apparent that the pilot has never landed at Kai Tak before. We had to give him directions about the final approach while wishing that Cardinal Sin had given us some rosary beads.
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who is full of supportive wisdom and so laid back that he is virtually horizontal.
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The last act has started and there is life beyond next year.
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‘Well could you tell me, Governor,’ he went on, ‘why your democracy is handing Hong Kong, a fine and free city, over to a communist society without ever having consulted the people who live here about what they want?’
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I’m told that Chancellor Kohl phoned President Clinton personally this week to try to get him to drop the annual motion criticizing China’s human rights record at the UN Human Rights Commission. Presumably the Volkswagen sales department was in on the call.
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‘the man who made Hong Kong drunk’ (with freedom).
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Tonight will be my last night’s sleep in Hong Kong. Before turning in, I look out through the curtains of my dressing room at the wall of lights beyond.
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