Secret docs reveal bizarre plan to relocate Hong Kong's entire population... to Northern Ireland

The Hong Kong skyline (Flickr)

Hong Kong’s citizens could have been swapping hoisin sauce for soda bread if a bizarre plan to relocate them all to Northern Ireland had ever got the green light.

The crazy idea was floated in the early ‘80s - at the height of the Troubles - as Britain was beginning to prepare for the 1997 hand-back of its Asian colony to China.

It’s been revealed this week in a series of previously classified documents published by The National Archives in Kew.

Reading University lecturer Christie Davies suggested that Hong Kong’s 5.5 million inhabitants would have no future under Chinese control.

And he said they should be resettled in a new “city state” built especially for them between Coleraine and Londonderry.

The files have been published by The National Archives in Kew (Flickr)

The plan would also serve to boost the then stagnating Northern Irish economy, he claimed.

His brainchild made headlines in the Belfast News Letter in October 1983, and came to the attention of Northern Ireland Office official George Fergusson.

He quickly fired off a memo to David Snoxell, a colleague in the Republic of Ireland Department of the Foreign Office.

“At this stage we see real advantages in taking the proposal seriously,” he wrote, suggesting it would show unionists Westminster was committed to retaining Northern Ireland in the UK.

It’s not clear, at first glance, whether the letter was tongue-in-cheek.

The counties of Northern Ireland (Wikipedia)

But Snoxell’s reply, and his comments since, have suggested that they were just joking with each other in appearing to take the plan seriously.

“My initial reaction… is that the proposal could be useful to the extent that the arrival of 5.5 million Chinese in Northern Ireland may induce the indigenous peoples to forsake their homeland for a future elsewhere,” Snoxell wrote back.

“We should not underestimate the danger of this taking the form of a mass exodus of boat refugees in the direction of South East Asia,” he added.

Snoxell, who is now retired, has since revealed the exchange “was a spoof between colleagues who had a sense of humour”.

“You can see it wasn’t intended seriously. Sadly, it’s impossible to make jokes like this any more, the Diplomatic Service has lost its sense of humour,” he told the BBC.

“I think that’s a shame because it’s through humour that you build relationships, with other departments, with other diplomats at home and abroad,” he added.