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HXK 6/531/1
Hong Kong Department
17 April, 1969
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Às may very well have been the case with yourself, pressure of other business has prevented my giving to Hong Kong telegram no. 301 about the forthcoming Swedish textile negotiations, the urgent attention which I think it requires. As you know, the Swedes are expected to arrive in Hong Kong on 20 April so that we have little time left in which to decide what needs to be said to Hong Kong. Unfortunately unless you have received from Stockholm the additional / statistical information for which we asked in our telegram no. 227 (and about which I sent a chaser to stookholm in telegram no. 111) we have not yet got all the information required on which to form a view.
2.
You
But even if we cannot decide what negotiating position we ought to recommend to Hong Kong when discussing particular categories, there is in their telegram 301 a certain amount of other matter which we should try to dispose of immediately. One such matter is raised in paragraph 4 where Hong Kong say that it strikes them that "de Goer's statement to Goldsmith could cover restraint requests on items now under Z/A.” will remember that we did not feel able to send Hong Kong the whole record of your discussions with de Geer in the Board of Trede on 20 March. But reading that note now it appears that Hong Kong's question may be answered in the second paragraph, where de Goer is recorded as saying that the Swedes did net propose to ask for export restraint on any non-cotton items apart from thess already covered by restraint azregmenta. i.s. anoraks and Kjumpers of voo) and putusan we interpret this to mean that the @wedes will be out of order if they seek to have actual restraint imposed on items now only subject to export authorisationa“ if we can, should we not say so now to Hong Kong in an appropriate telegram: of course, their own telegram begins with the werda *: ending Swedish clarification of their intentions ..."; but as you know, i have from time to time wondered whether, when the moment of negotiation case, the Swedes would not seek to broaden the scope of the discussions and we have speculated whether the fact that their statisties covered a range of categories not all previously restrained did not indicate this very intention. It seems to me hoW that in the latest Hong Kong telegram there are indications at least that in a number of categories imports from Hong Kong are indeed damaging the market.
Vise J. E. Elliott,
CRE Division 1,
Board of Trade,
1 Victoria street,
LOND.N, 3.4.1.
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