W(B)L 51-7433
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
..In Confidence
رقت
DRAFT
Minute
Type 1 +
2
To:-
Mr. Combs
From
Wis. Carte
£ Glover-
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Hong Kong
The Interests of Dependent Territories My minute of 26 August was no more than
an interim reply to Mr. Preston's minute to
you about keeping dependent territories
informed of international developments
affecting them. I explained that it would
be some time before I was able to give a
considered reply.
2.
I agree, of course, that there is a
problem here and one which needs to be
emphasised at this stage when the merger of
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is
impending. Dependent territories, for whose
external relations we are responsible, are
not in a position to collect information
from abroad except perhaps on a very limited
basis through commercial channels.
Hong Kong for instance has only three
representatives overseas, in Washington, Geneva and Brussels and when their resources
stretchelto the limit they are obliged to be
selective in the matters that they pay
St must be attention to. I feel that it is our
responsibility as the metropolitian
country to do what we can to provide
/depende