Archives reveal debate in 1983 over bizarre idea of moving millions of Chinese to Northern Ireland at height of Troubles ahead of colony’s handover to Beijing.

Government officials raised the idea of resettling the entire five and a half million residents of Hong Kong in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles, it has emerged in government documents that have just been released.

The extraordinary proposal was more a political in-joke than a genuine plan – but one civil servant said at the time that it should be taken seriously. It has emerged from a 1983 file released to the National Archives in Kew, in London, on Friday.

The suggestion was made initially by an academic, Christie Davies, a sociology lecturer at Reading University. A city state should be established in Magilligan, between Coleraine and Derry, he said, because the colony’s population would have no political future after the territory reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.

A Northern Ireland civil servant, George Fergusson, seized on the idea and launched into enthusiastic discussions with the Foreign Office. A file entitled The Replantation of N. Ireland from Hong Kong records the exchanges – the title echoes the 17th-century settlement, or “plantation” of Scots in Ulster by King James I.

Written in an era of sectarian bloodshed and political stalemate, the correspondence reflects the private exasperation of those close to the heart of power and appears to have provided them with an entertaining diversion from more serious challenges. The file was given a “restricted” status but there is nothing to indicate that it ever reached ministers.

“If the plantation were undertaken,” Fergusson wrote, “it would have evident advantages in reassuring Unionist opinion of the open-ended nature of the Union.” American doubts about the scheme would be assuaged by the “possibly happy outcome to the uncertainties currently surrounding Hong Kong”.

He continued: “We are undecided here whether the arrival of 5½ million Cantonese would make government policy [on devolution] … more or less easy to implement. Arithmetically, recognition of three identities might be thought more difficult.

“On the other hand, the newly arrived ‘third’ identity would be hard not to recognise and this in turn might lessen the scale of the problem in recognising the other two.”

There were legal precedents, Fergusson added: “If Gibraltar and Falkland Island inhabitants … may be EC citizens, how could Brussels … seriously object to the inhabitants of Hong Kong, particularly if they were living in the Magilligan area?”

Fifty Chinese families from Vietnam had been resettled in Craigavon and Coleraine already, he pointed out. “It has at least established that the Chinese do not find the Northern Ireland climate objectionable and that they can get on reasonably well with the current inhabitants.”

Fergusson said there would be a need to liaise with the Treasury, Home Office and Hong Kong itself. “At this stage we see real advantages in taking the proposals seriously,” he commented. There would need to be planning applications on a confidential basis.

In reply, DR Snoxell, of the Foreign Office (FCO), adopted a tone that suggested parody as much as caution. He wrote: “You have raised some important considerations to which we shall want to give careful thought.

“My initial reaction, however, is that the proposal could be useful to the extent that 5½ million Chinese may induce the indigenous peoples to forsake their homeland for a future elsewhere. Arrangements would, of course, have to be made for [the Chinese] to retain their UK nationality.”

Sovereignty disputes with the Irish republic over Lough Foyle could complicate their resettlement, he added. “The Chinese people of Hong Kong are essentially a fishing and maritime people,” Snoxell said.

“I am sure you would share our view that it would be unwise to settle the people of Hong Kong in the vicinity until we had established our claims on the lough and whether these extended to high or low-water mark.”

Another appreciative official at the FCO had written on the letter: “My mind will be boggling for the rest of the day.”

Although the Chinese community never reached five million, it has contributed to Northern Ireland’s political progress. Anna Lo, originally from Hong Kong, moved to Belfast in 1974, eventually becoming a Stormont assembly member for the Alliance party. She announced last year that she would stand down because of racist attacks by loyalists.