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Mr. Capter Mr. Stewart Mr. Boyd
At (1) there is the Governor's annual despatch in wh hich he sets out an account of the principal develop- ments in the Colony during the past twelve months. There is a standing instruction that we should aim at a formal reply to these despatches within one month of on HWB13/7their receipt. It has been the practice for these des-
patches to be printed as Commonwealth Office prints, together with the Secretary of State's reply. Last year's despatch and the reply to it are at (15) and (19) on HWB 13/7.
Mr. Marsh knows of pps. dealing with The distribution of "Prinks". We need
to look at them. Love
tenor
2. The general tone and tenure of this despatch is markedly different from its immediate predecessor which was written not long after the events of 1967. This despatch exhibits the quite incredible resilience and energy of the people of Hong Kong and one can almost hear the murmur of the hive at a distance of 8,000 miles.
3.
Politically, there is little in the despatch call- ing for specific comment. In paragraph 15 the Governor refers to "a disquieting expansion of Communist schools": but any gloom that might be engendered by this reference is somewhat dissipated by the later statement in the same paragraph that "Communist schools can cater for only about one-third of the children from Communist families and they attract few from outside the fold".
4. In the last paragraph of last year's despatch the Governor left us with a questionmark looming over the future of the young people of Hong Kong. He does not revert to that subject in his present despatch but the questionmark is still there. In replying to the Governor I think it would do no harm to revert to the point made in paragraph 4 of last year's reply and make it clear that despite Hong Kong's cork like pro- pensities and her booming economy, we still fully realise the need to guard against the danger of com- placency.
5. I am marking this minute to Mr. Stewart and Mr. Boyd for any comments that they may wish to see included in the draft reply to the Governor.
6. As regards printing arrangements, we have hitherto been following the Commonwealth Office procedure set out in the Departmental notice at front cover. How- ever, following merger, this procedure no longer applies and I understand that no specific procedure has yet been worked out. This is apparently now under consider- ation by Commonwealth Co-Ordination Department and the Library and Records Department (Mr. Bretton). It is apparently not necessary under Foreign Office procedure for the authority of an Assistance Under-Secretary to be obtained for the printing of despatches: Heads of Department can give the necessary authority. There is also the question of the distribution to be given to the printed despatches: in the days of the Commonwealth Office this was handled by the Commonwealth Policy and Planning Department but I am not sure who decides on the distribution under present arrangements. I should imagine that we should wish the despatches to be dis- tributed to all our overseas Missions as well as being
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