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8.
Schoffer had clearly been badly briefed or not
done his homework and he seemed genuinely surprised by
the facts which we placed before him. He confirmed that
the deadline which had originally been drawn up (see
CODEL E Brussels Tel. No. 956 of 8th November) would
now need to be abandoned. Dodge said that he would be
available at any time to assist Schoffer with any points
of detail on which he would wish to have further clarifica-
tion and Schoffer concluded by saying that he thought
unaware.
the meeting had been very useful and that he had certainly
had put before him issues of which he had hitherto been
He thought that much would depend on exactly
what assurances had been exchanged between E.E.C. and
H.M.G. officials and what status the Commission's legal
advisers afforded those assurances. He had been told
that at the technical level on both the E.E.C. and British
sides the existence of the assurances were well known but
perhaps they had not been repeated to the actual
negotiators themselves.
He was convinced that Hong Kong
had no knowledge of them and that Hong Kong had acted
strictly in accordance with the E.E.C./U.K. agreement on
Hong Kong reached on 2nd February, 1971.
9. For the moment the heat is right off and ball
firmly back in the Commission's court.
10.
Mills returns Hong Kong on flight BA802 arriving
14th November, p.m., and will give his assessment of
the meeting on his return.
Kabrend Mitts.
Please inform family.
B
ENSD
MILLS c/o Hong Kong Government Office, London
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