97499 St.S.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No. HWB 1/13
Top Secret Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
DRAFT MINUTE
To:-
Prime Minister
Type 1 +
From
Secretary of State
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Flag B on HWB 1/13
Copy to
Foreign Secretary
STAFF: IN CONFIDENCE
The Governorship of Hong Kong
You asked in March that I should consult
you in good time when we started thinking about
a successor to Sir David Trench, whose term of
office expires next April,
2.
Aftercare this carefire considerains I
In fact, my strong recommendation is that
we should extend Sir David's term by a further
year thê? Not instance, i.e. until April
1970, and that we should announce this as soon
as possible.
3. When Sir David was over here for
consultations earlier this month I spent a good
deal of time in discussions with him. We need which consagr
consem
e top of
no longer feel anxiety over his health
health he is
obviously on the top of his form, and he
impressed me greatly by his grasp of Hong Kong
affairs and his clear sighted approach to his
task, which is surely a formidable one.
4. sar Davis is a well-liked, trusted and
widely popular figure in the Colony, especially
among the Chinese. He is much respected as a
man of liberal views who has used his
considerable personal influence in the
direction of modernising and liberalising some
of the Colony's traditional attitudes. For
large numbers of the Chinese, too, he has come
to be regarded as a symbol of resistance to
Communist