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Our Ref: GR LM A.1057/71
Your Ref: HKK 11/1
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Been Ente
Clel
7
Enter & back to me
eyc
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT,
HONG KONG.
.pl.
RECOVED IN
9th August, 1971.
REGIST N
167
16 AUG 1971
LAST
REF.
8
NEXT
Dear Michael, THICK 11/1
REF.
Many thanks for your letter of
29th July, 1971, which helped to relieve our puzzlement about the interest in Typhoon Lucy in the House of Commons.
There is a tendency here for the local English language press, in particular, to play up the likely strength of typhoons (typhoon Nadine, which followed Lucy, was called a "super-typhoon", heading directly for Hong Kong, but in fact she left us alone). The B.B.C. correspondent may have been influenced by this attitude, although the B.B.C. overseas news at 8 p.m., after we had spoken, had the actual facts correctly reported. At the same time, typhoons can genuinely look very dangerous and then fill in and change direction. Lucy, for example, looked a real menace as her arrival appeared to coincide with high tide and there was the risk of a storm surge in Tolo Harbour, such as occurred with Typhoon Wanda in 1962, and which would real ly have stretched our resources. Later, of course, after we had prepared for a direct hit, she filled in and her winds were never at hurricane force.
yours smaug
теля
(S.T. Kidd)
E.O. Laird, Esq., CMG, MBE, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, LONDON. S.W.1