30
Thank you. If you do not start
By all means.
IRA: Bmonly 2572
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CONFIDENTIAL
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Turned the M. Wefore. It hand to
Mr Boyle this had been types, so I am not sending it to him.
perhaps you should see it.
GOVERNOR OF HONG KONG
I am afraid that my minute of 17 February to
Sir L Monson about my conversation with Sir D Trench in Hong Kong last month has caused more annoyance than I had expected and I am worried lest I have done Sir D Trench a disservice by recording our conversation.
2.
I was of course aware when Sir D Trench was talking to
me that there was nothing novel in what he was saying and that he had often made these points before. I am sure that he is
as well aware as I am that even if we sometimes agree with him
on where Hong Kong interests lie we may nevertheless be compelled by wider considerations to act contrary to those interests;
and I am sure that he also accepts that it must be our
calculation of major UK interests that decides our policy
rather than our calculation of Hong Kong interests.
2.
What
He did not give me the impression that he thought that in anything we had so far done we had reduced the credibility of the Governorship to the point at which the Governor's RECEIVED IN usefulness to us as a method of controlling Hong Kong by REGISTRY No. 51relatively non-violent means had been seriously eroded.
he was concerned to do, I think, was to take the opportunity afforded by my presence to remind us, once more, of the danger
as he saw it that we might at some future date cause that useful-
ness to be more seriously eroded than we ourselves wanted it
to be. This was surely legitimate on his part, even if he could
in fact have rested assured than no such miscalculation would
be made in London.
HKKI/I
3.
Finally, I found no sign of what I could fairly describe
as the harbouring of ancient grudges by Sir D Trench. The
conversation in fact took place before a decision had been taken on the recent issue over the handling of the Hong Kong issue in the EEC negotiations, and in so far as he was referring to any
specific examples, he was simply using them to illustrate the kind of decision which we might · indeed probably would have
CONFIDENTIAL
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