2012
LAST
RH
NI.1
دو
Reference...
76
Sir A. Galsworthy
Hong Kong and the B.B.C.
Your minute of 14 February below. I am in
no doubt that the Governor has every right to the
anger reflected in his letter to Lord Hill. But
in terms of impact on the B.B.C., who are adept
at every kind of self-defence in these situations,
it has two disadvantages
(1) at no point does it prove the bias of the
+
B.B.C. programme. It makes its case by
unsupported assertion.
2.
(11) The B.B.C. will not accept that either
the Governor or ourselves are objective
judges of programmes critical of Hong Kong
and of H.M.G.
Nevertheless, I think there is sufficient in
the letter to establish that the programme was
produced in a pretty discreditable manner and to
make a prima facie case for bias, if not for
malevolence, despite the absence of chapter and
verse.
3. The question now is what action we can take
with the B.B.C. which will most effectively re-
inforce the Governor's case, without giving grounds
to those elements in the B.B.C. who will seek to
dismiss it as an example of the Establishment' 8
intolerance of criticism.
4. I think this might best be done by a follow-
up letter to Lord Hill either from Lord Shepherd
or the Secretary of State, if it is possible for
us to write the right sort of letter i.e. one
containing dispassionate chapter and verse, and
/not
Page 90Page 91