TURMOIL IN CHINA: The Struggle for Power : Thatcher Aide to Assess Hong Kong Woes, New British Settlers

British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe will visit Hong Kong in early July to assess problems confronting the British colony after the bloody military crackdown in Beijing, the Foreign Office said Friday.

The exact dates and duration of the trip are being worked out, the office said.

The announcement came as debate raged over exploring ways of allowing larger numbers of Hong Kong citizens holding British passports to settle in Britain.

Events in China have prompted widespread fears among people in Hong Kong, which Britain is due to hand over to Chinese rule in 1997. Under a 1984 agreement, China promised to allow capitalism in Hong Kong to exist for 50 years, but critics claim it could override the treaty obligations.

Calls are mounting for Britain to open its doors to the colony’s 3.2 million Chinese who hold British passports and to renegotiate or even scrap the 1984 agreement.

But letting in more immigrants is politically unpopular in Britain. And renegotiating the agreement appears diplomatically impossible.

Balking at easing the law for Hong Kong, Howe warned the House of Commons against “a massive new immigration commitment which could more than double the ethnic minority population of the United Kingdom.”

In defending his postion, Howe has resorted to saying that China’s aging, hard-line Communists may be gone by 1997, that China’s economy will always need Hong Kong’s capitalism and Britain has no option but to hand over the colony.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has ruled out any “open door” policy. She earlier told Parliament that the government is prepared “to see if we can get increasing flexibility . . . to allow an increasing number of people in here.” This flexibility could include allowing discretion over letting in public servants and people with private incomes, she indicated.

In a television interview Friday in Hong Kong, the leader of Britain’s centrist Liberal and Social Democrats, Paddy Ashdown, said his country should allow all Hong Kong residents who want to resettle to do so.

“I don’t say it is immediately practical,” he added. “But I do believe that Britain has a moral responsibility to take the lead in this issue.”

After a meeting with Ashdown, local legislators issued a statement saying, “We reiterate our position that Britain has a fundamental moral duty to extend the right to abode to all the British nationals in Hong Kong.”

In Hong Kong on Friday, protesters again demonstrated against suppression of the student protests in China.

Hundreds of fishing boats flying black flags circled Hong Kong harbor for nearly an hour in a protest that fouled up traffic in one of the world’s busiest ports. With sirens blaring, the boats steamed around the harbor at full speed, trapping tourists on cruises and halting barges waiting to unload.