Mr. Carter
Reference.... HKK 6/304/1
118
Mr. Stans' Visit to Hong Kong
Sir Arthur Snelling's minute to Mr. Combs on this subject is at (113). In this minute I refer
to the conclusion he reaches that it would be desirable for someone from London to go to Hong Kong to take part in discussions with Mr. Stans. As you know Mr. Combs has since agreed and favours a Board of Trade official attending from CRE Department (e.g. Mr. Goldsmith) and if not, Mr. Whitehead of our Commodities Department.
2.
Now at (114) is a draft Submission by Mr. Dunnett of CRE1 Board of Trade. We have one of Mr. Whitehead's copies on which we may comment before the end of the week and it seems appropriate to do so to Commodities Department. We have to bear in mind the point which Sir Arthur Snelling makes himself that there are two views within the Board of Trade and that this draft Submission may not yet reflect the viewpoint of the Industries' Division, to which indeed it is addressed.
3.
The Submission considers two related questions: 1. What line we should encourage Hong Kong to take
with Mr. Stans.
2. Whether a UK representative should be present. I refer first to the second of these questions.
14. Mr. Dunnett finds the arguments for and against
the presence of a UK representative fairly evenly balanced. If I may say so he has set out the pros and cons in the matter very fairly from the stand- point of Hong Kong, although from our Departmental point of view it may be useful to expand his argument.
5. Before going any further we should bear in mind that Mr. Sellers of the Hong Kong Government Office, who attended Stans' discussions as an observer, will already have reported to his Government that Sir Arthur Snelling was actively considering the atten- dance of a UK representative at the Hong Kong discussions. Sir Arthur Snelling, I understand, told Mr. Sellers that he saw advantage in thus demonstrating HMG's support of Hong Kong, at the same time ensuring a sort of continuity of obser- vation of the Stans' discussions. This is how Mr. Sellers sees our purpose and this is therefore what the Hong Kong Government will be expecting.
16. We can be sure that the Hong Kong Government will be gratified by the strong moral support HMG has already given to their case in the London dis- cussions with Mr. Stans. But we would be deluding ourselves if we did not recognise that their grati- fication could very rapidly turn to suspicion and resentment if they thought, for one thing that we did not trust them to handle the discussions them- selves; for another that we wished directly to
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