(115281) Dd. 391599 1,500M 2/69 Hw.
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry
No.
URITY CLASSIFICATION
DRAFT
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
To:-
The Rt Hon R Wood MP
Type 1 +
Minister of Overseas Development
Eland House
From
A Royle
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
Stag Place
..In Confidence
London S W 1
A
Thank you for your letter of 4 January about
Hong Kong.
2.
I am very sorry that you find great difficulties
From my point of view, and for the
in our proposal.
reasons which I shall explain, it is particularly
important that we should make this gesture and I
should be most grateful if you could reconsider the
matter.
3.
I think I should stress immediately that in
telling me about the Japanese Offer, P. Y. Tang, the
Chairman of the Polytechnic Planning Committee, who is
also, of course, a Member of the Executive Council, spoke
in terms which made it clear that he was not asking us
for parallel help because of our relationship with
Hong Kong but telling us of the offer in case, in our
trade interests, we would like to do something similar.
at lie sú He thought we might like to seejsome of the trainees
brought up with a bias towards British machinery.
4. You mentioned in your letter that one of your
main objections related to trade considerations,
The
DTI are of course responsible for straight-forward
trade promotion, eg, exhibitions and trade missions,
but it seems to me that where, as in this case, other
1