(10822)
CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVED IN ; ARCHIVES No.31
20 JUL 1967
а
9548
FJ1/423 Eur
BRITISH EMBASSY.
SkyWilmi
WASHINGTON, D.U.
Dear
18 July, 1967
сора
shilch
9°
Cartă (co-).
Вале
18.
7
228/6/1
Du Belland,
Hong Kong: American Opinion
You should see the enclosed editorial comment from the Washington Post of 14 July about our position in Hong Kong.
2.
I do not know whether it will come across to you in the same way, but the feeling I get, quite strongly, is that the arguments in the earlier part of this commentary (some of which are perverse, and not the sort of analysis current among those who follow these matters in Washington) have been devised to serve as a lead in to the "message" in the latter part.
And I am bound to add that I think the drift of this latter part, illogical and unwelcome as it may be, would dominate public opinion in the circumstances envisaged, and that the Administration, whatever they might themselves wish to do, would have to take account of this.
3。 Otherwise the reporting of events in Hong Kong has been accurate, if sometimes excited, here, and the Hong Kong Government have had a good press. Indeed, I have noticed only one other unhelpful piece, a rather malicious N.B.C. television commentary by a correspondent whose "news" had nothing to do with current events but was simply that he had discovered no civil or military official in Hong Kong who believed that, if the Chinese mounted a serious con- frontation, we would stand up to it.
4.
I am sending copies of this letter to Wilford in Hong Kong and Whitney in Peking.
E. Bolland, Esq.,
Far Eastern Department,
FOREIGN OFFICE.
CONFIDENTIAL
مسنا
ever,
Brian Gilmane
(B. T. Gilmore)
RECEIVED IN ARCHIVES No. 63
25 JUL1967
HWA 1/12
$
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