CONFIDENTIAL
MENTARY UNDER-SECRETARY
RECORD OF CONVERSATION BETWEE THE
OF STATE AND MR HADDON-CAVE HELD AT THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE ON MONDAY, 6 DECEMBER AT 16.45 PM
139)
In Clew lay
Mr A Royle, MP
Sir L Monson
Mr H B C Keeble
Mr E O Laird
Mr H E J Hale
Mr M F Forrester
PRESENT
Mr P Haddon-Cave
Mr E Ho
Er
Mr D Sellers
17kii
1.
Cotton Textiles
Mr Royle said that we recognised that the decision taken by
the Government created difficulties for Hong Kong.
2.
Mr Haddon-Cave, speaking generally on the lines of his conversation earlier that day with Mr Grant, again singled out
the difficult position in which the Governor would be placed by
the British Government's decision. Mr Haddon-Cave hoped that
there might be some possibilities of amelioration of the details of the new British policy and in particular that Hong Kong could obtain something to offset the double form of protection which
Britain would now have.
3。 He said that Hong Kong traders had worked on the assumption
that there would be no quotas in 1972 and consequently large
orders had been placed by non-quota holders. Referring to the suggestions that he had made at the meeting of officials during the morning of 6 December, he said that if it were not possible to obtain decalage, he hoped that there might be some modernisation of the quota arrangements to reflect current conditions in the
textile trade. Hong Kong's broad objectives now were to be able
to say that:-
(i)
(ii)
the Governor had been notified in advance;
a Hong Kong team had been invited to London to pat
CONFIDENTIAL
/their case;