iz
10/6
CR 67/65 V
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG.
CONFIDENTIAL
Mr. Carter 1076 Sir A. She s
away.
Dear Crottyas
5
یتا
June, 1969.
13/393/2
Thank you for your letter of 29th May about Stans visit. It is certainly the case that the atmosphere in which the talks were held was edgy and that Stans, who was clearly tired and under strain, reacted badly to any challenge of the factual basis of his case, which really was presented in a very perfunctory manner and was little more than a threat of unilateral action. There was little, if anything, said on our side that would not be a commonplace of such talks but he may, have reacted as he did, partly because he was fully aware of the weaknesses of his case, partly because he had to react in front of his very large delegation (ours was too large also). On the other hand, he was also guilty on a number of occasions of the unprovoked discourtesy of consulting with his staff while our side was speaking.
His attitude, too, even before the meetings, was one of some arrogance, an attitude we tend to find in some of the less experienced political appointees to posts in a new American administration in their dealings with us as a Colony. For example, there was no formal proposal by the Americans that Stans should visit Hong Kong or any enquiry whether the not very convenient date (a Saturday) was convenient to us. He was pretty offhand with the Director of Commerce and Industry who went to the airport to greet him (he apologised the following day) and his arrangements to hold a press conference and appear on radio and television were made without consultation with us. We, for our part, informed him in advance of our intention to make a brief press release after the meeting and of its general tenor, to which he did not demur
•
Sir Arthur Galsworthy, K.C.M.G., Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London, S.W.1.
RECEIVED IN
/There is... ĮREGISTRY No.51
10 JUN 1969
20171
REF.
CONFIDENTIAL
AKIL6/304/1
Page 60Page 61
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