(HKK 6/18)
78
Hong Kong Department Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
19 August, 1970
11
J J
51/€
Relations with Hong Kong on Textiles
With his letter MC 13/393/1 of 30 July, Mark Heath sent you a copy of the draft despatch to the Governor of Hong Kong defining the delegation of authority in regard to Hong Kong's commercial relations.
2. The Governor has sent his comments on the draft despatch in his telegram No. 515 of 4 August, the main one being that he would prefer the delegation to be broadened to include all goods and not just textiles. We see no objection to this since, if the delega- tion is widened in this way, it should settle the whole vexed question of commercial relations with Hong Kong.
3.
The other amendments proposed by the Governor are acceptable to us and I hope that you can agree to them. I enclose a revised draft despatch incorporating these amendments together with a draft telegram to the Governor.
4. In regard to me text of the recommendation to Ministers which Mark Heath sent to you with his letter of 6 July, I hope that on reflection, Ala., Gregory will be able to agree not to press his amendments on paragraphs 10 and 13 sent with his letter of 16 July. In view of the proposed broadening of the delegation of authority, it will be necessary to change the text of the recommendation to Ministers to include other goods. I enclose a revised draft of the text of recommendations we propose to put to our Ministers and I should be grateful for your confirmation that it has your agreement
5. Since the Americans are delaying their reply to our suggestion that Hong Kong should enter into negotiations with them over non- cotton textiles, we may be able to get the finalised despatch away to the Governor before a decision on negotiations is received from the Americans.
D. I. Dunnett, Esq.,
Board of Trade,
1 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.1.
(G. F. Kinnear)
Copies to:
A. Gregory, Esq., Min. of Technology H. E. J. Hale, Esq., Commodities Dept