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COMMITTEE OF P
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TRADE
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41:
YED IN
BOARD OF TRADE
1 VICTORIA STREET
LONDON S.W.1
R.CETRY No.51
OPEN 1770
4 February 1970
Jam Beslie. Jen
NICK 6/18
-below
Thank you for your letter of 14 January about Hong Kong's commercial relations.
2. We are content to accept the amendments proposed by the Governor to paragraphs 1 and 3 and his new paragraph 8.
3. The amendment he proposes to paragraph 4 of the original text is difficult to reconcile with the views expressed by Eugene Melville in recent correspondence, as your letter recognises. There seem to be broadly two possible ways of dealing with the difficulty. The first is on the lines suggested in paragraph 10 of your letter i.e. to amend the heading of the statement to make it clear that it deals only with Hong Kong's bilateral commercial relations. If this course were followed I think we would need to have it quite clearly understood with the Governor that the additional words which he wishes to add to paragraph 4 are not to be interpreted as referring to the situation in international organisations.
4. Another possibility would be to omit paragraph 5(a), which speaks of the possibility of divergent policies being followed by HMG and Hong Kong. But it seems to us that by far the best course would be the straightforward one of adding to the draft a new paragraph which would run:
5.
"It is agreed that in no circumstances will conflicting statements be made in the GATT or other international organisations reflecting differing UK and Hong Kong views."
There was no opportunity to discuss this matter with Eugene Melville when he was in London, but if you and the Governor can accept my suggestion above, I think that his position would be sufficiently protected. You will however no doubt wish to clear the final text with him.
6. I am sending a copy of this letter to Carey and to Eugene Melville.
Your
Bir
Sir Leslie Monson, KCMG, CB,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, S.W.1.
W. Hughes