Reference.......HKK 6/331/1
Mr. Whitehead,
Commodities Department
In Mr. Carter's absence on leave I have to take up the matter of non-cotton textiles, Canada/Hong Kong, about which he minuted to you on 1 August.
2. You will have seen Hong Kong telegram No.603 in reply to our own No.492: I will not pretend that we find it very satisfactory. I am disposed to blame Hong Kong's failure to consult fully with us on this occasion on their staff problems. As you know, they
Indeed it has been are acutely short of staff. necessary for Mr. Jones from Geneva to fill the gap in the Hong Kong Ministry for the time being and I see that it is proposed that he should lead for Hong Kong in the forthcoming Canadian negotiations.
3. You will also have seen Ottawa telegram No.87 and Hong Kong's reply telegram No. M.257. I am copying both of these telegrams to the Board of Trade. In my view, however desirable it might have been to postpone negotiations with the Canadians (and in our telegram No.492 we saw advantage in a deliberate approach to the problem), this is now no longer possible. Ottawa telegram No.87 indicates that there has been difficulty as between Hong Kong and Canada over reaching agreement on a date for discussion and I fear that if we now try to insist on a post- ponement, particularly one long enough to give us a good breathing space, we will arouse Canadian hostility. In any case we know from Guiness' record of the 27th June meeting that the Canadians consider it politically necessary to decide the matter in the near future. I therefore think that whether we like it or not we are stuck with the 18th or 19th August as the date for these negotiations.
.4.
Nevertheless the Board of Trade and we ourselves obviously continue to be interested in the outcome of these negotiations. In the circumstances, therefore I suggest that any conclusion reached by Hong Kong is:
( ad referendum and I have drafted a telegram accordingly. I am copying the draft to the Board of Trade and asking for their urgent comments as well as ⚫your own. If we are.to get into the act at all
and we clearly must -.we ought to send something off promptly. It is not enough, I would say, to be "notified in due course".
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