PS (73) 86
CONFIDENTIAL
Cabinet Office
Whitehall
London, SW1
11th December, 1973
w/95
Dear Private Secretary,
Prime Minister's Visit to Hong Kong
12th-14th January, 1974
At Sir John Hunt's meeting on 7th December, Departments represented agreed that the preparation of briefs for the Prime Minister's visit to Hong Kong should be put in hand forthwith.
Attached at Annex A is a list of briefs which follows the list
attached to Sir John Rennie's letter to Sir John Hunt of 3rd December. This indicates the Departments responsible for originating briefs. These Departments should ensure that the briefs they originate are cleated with all the other Departments concerned; and to assist this they are asked to arrange that all briefs in draft form are sent to Mr. A. C. Stuart of Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and to Mr. H. F. T. Smith in the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office will be ready to assist in arranging any collective discussion of policy points.
Departments are reminded that, in line with previous briefing exercises, the steering brief and supporting briefs should be short and should direct the Prime Minister's mind to the object of any given discussion. Material which is contained in other papers which the Prime Minister will have read recently (e.g. in the briefs for the Prime Minister's visit to China - the PMVC series) need not be repeated. At Annexes B and C are full instructions on layout and format.
Fifty-Five copies of all briefs should be sent in final form to the Committee Section here (Mr. W. A. Robens, Tel: No. 930 5422, Ext. 138) no later than Friday, 14th December (the date for the final submission of PMVC briefs). The Cabinet Office will be responsible for arranging a final briefing meeting with the Prime Minister if this is found to be necessary, in which case discussion of the Hong Kong briefs is likely to take place at the same time as that for the China briefs,
I am sending copies of this letter to the Private Secretaries to Sir Thomas Brimelow, Sir Douglas Allen, Sir James Dunnett, Sir Arthur Peterson and Sir Max Brown; and to Lord Bridges at No. 10.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) B. M. WEBSTER
CONFIDENTIAL