Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1
Stratton Esq
R J HONG KONG
HKIOD
Telephone 01- 930 8440 Extn 553
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15 June 1973
17/3
LAST
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HONG KONG AND ECAFE
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142/3
Thank you for your letter of 11 May about the recent ECAFE session in Tokyo. I am sorry not to have reacted
earlier.
2. As you say, the Chinese attitude over Hong Kong at the meeting was gratifying. We could hardly have hoped for more. Obviously this will not prevent the Chinese from being more troublesome in the future if they so wish. But a precedent has been set; and provided that the Hong Kong delegation continues to keep a low profile, we can reasonably hope that the Chinese will continue to avoid taking open issue with us over the status of Hong Kong in this forum.
3. You asked for our comments on the question of the leadership of your delegation. We have consulted our own delegation to the meeting. They have pointed out that the question is perhaps not quite so straightforward as you imply. In a general ECAFE context, there are advantages in delegations from dependent territories being staffed by natives rather than expatriates, and this perhaps applies particularly to the head of the delegation. Very much for your own information, our delegation have commented that, insofar as there was any difficulty (and there was not much), it arose more from the personality of Mr Ann than from his race. Our delegation pointed out that Mr Ho was able to have perfectly aimable conversations with the head of the Chinese delegation at the lunch which the British delegation gave.
1
CONFIDENTIAL
14.