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PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
179253
BRITISH EMBASSY,
WASHINGTON D.C.
23 August 1968
For consideration in connexion with thes
Dears Jane's, fellecoming indurresion
for a drift refly.
and subsywally
Визы вид
We have heard nothing from the State Department in Mr Denson recent days about the talks which are no doubt underway between the Governor of Hong Kong and the U.S. Consulate- General about interpretation of the Guide Lines for visits of U.S. ships there. The Naval Attache has, however, been given a hint by the Navy Department that they are more than a little disturbed at the possibility of a more
I under- restrictive interpretation of the Guide Lines. stand that the only surface nuclear ship remaining in the Western Pacific for the rest of this year is LONG BEACH and it is doubtful whether she will need to visit Hong Kong. For the rest of 1968 therefore we are probably only concerned with nuclear submarines. I do not wish to stick this Embassy's oar into the negotiations at this stage since, as I have said, the State Department have not appealed to us. However, I have myself always wondered whether we are really being logical in equating all the different sorts of nuclear- propelled ships. I know that these ships are the ones most likely to elicit a Chinese reaction, but I think we have now got a better view of the meaning of Chinese reactions than perhaps we had at one time. Would you therefore be prepared to consider whether, if the Americans react very badly to the imposition of a limit on nuclear ships, we should not draw a distinction between the small ones such as submarines and frigates
It does seem and the larger ones such as cruisers and carriers.
to me that there is a difference between these two groups and I would hope that we might be able to exclude the former from special consideration.
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2. The Naval Attache also points out that with a large ship a recreational visit of less than five days is of marginal value and may well mean that some men only get ashore once. I feel that once a ship is in port the difference between five and quote "less than five" days is of no great significance and should not be pressed.
3.
I have sought to convey through our Naval staff here to their American' colleagues that they will find the Governor extremely sympathetic to their case within the limit of his instructions and that they will do much better to go on trying to reach acceptable arrangements with him than to take the matter back prematurely on to the political level whether in Washington or London. I hope that you would agree with this advice. 4. I am not copying this letter elsewhere.
Yours
་་ཞིག་པ། (K.M. Wilford)
M.
James Murray, Esq.,C.M.G., Far Eastern Department, Foreign Office.
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL