C. & I. 200
2700206
5,000-7/66-B55340
CONFIDENTIAL
LEGRAPHIC ADDRESS:-
A
OUR REF.:
YOUR REF.:
11
HONG" HONG KONG
CR 4461/68
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY No.51
18 JUN 1969
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Mr. Numa
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Dear Bunny,
COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT,
FIRE BRIGADE BUILDING,
HONG KONG.
letter) Lose
17/6
12 June
196 9.
Hong Kong and the EE.C.'s Common Commercial Policy
As you will know I have been asked to come here for a few months to help out while Terence Sorby and one or two others in the Department are on leave at a time when the pressure of business is rather heavy.
2.
The
I expect you will have been seen Herbert Stewart's copy of the letter dated 2 May 1969 from Hannay, U.K. Delegation to the European Communities, to Ingram at the Board of Trade. references therein to Hannay's previous letter of 27 March and to Jackson's of 14 April, unfortunately, place us at a disadvantage as neither had been copied to Hong Kong.
3.
As you can imagine we have been giving some thought to this question in the interim. We have also recently had the opportunity of informal talks with Ernst of the E.E.C. Commission who spent a couple of days in Hong Kong on his way back to Europe from Japan. This gave us the chance to listen in somewhat more detail to what Ernst had to say and it also enabled me to give him some preliminary reactions from our side, on an equally informal basis of course.
4.
We are still in the course of digesting the information we have had so far, including what we got from Ernst, but our tentative views are as follows. First on the constitutional aspects. Although H.M.G. is, of course, ultimately responsible for Hong Kong's external commercial relations, I do not think that it is a necessary corollary that all approaches from foreign governments on matters of interest to Hong Kong need always be channelled through British posts from the outset. The corollary is rather that instructions given to any overseas Hong Kong Government representative should be not inconsistent with H.M.G.'s overall policy, and that Hong Kong's official comments on, or negotiating instructions in relation to, any proposals made should be subject to approval in London.
5.
Bearing these points in mind, we cannot see that there should be any objection to Purves' acting as an audience to Ernst's soliloquies. Whether what Ernst has to say is necessarily fully reliable is a different question; this we can only find out by giving it a try and in the light of experience. We here certainly want to
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