Report on Visit to United Kingdom
(On the Invitation of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office)
21st October, 1973. (Sunday)
Met at Heathrow Airport by Mr. S.S. Hordern, Head of Asia Group, Tours Section. He was with us from 8.20 a.m. to about 10 a.m. and would be on holiday two days later. Very friendly and helpful.
22nd October, 1973. (Monday)
Mr. V. James met us at Hotel at 10.45 a.m. We arrived at Central Office of Information, Hercules Road, at 11 a.m. for a conference to fix the programme of our visit. This took place at a rectangular table, with the seating arranged as follows, with our name-cards in front of us.
Mr. J.H. Moore Mr. Hordern
Mr. M. Pelly
Mr. V. James
D. Huang
Kenneth Lo
Henry H.L. Hu
P.K. Ng
I initiated the discussion and ran through the programme item by item. We thanked them for preparing a good, comprehensive programme, and they were very cooperative and sympathetic. We merely filled in the gaps which the hosts had left for us to decide.
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We finished discussion at exactly 11.45 a.m. and then went to the Foreign Office to see Sir Duncan Watson. We had a lively discussion with him including: corruption (Godber Affair), the death sentence, share market, etc. I started the ball rolling by telling Sir Duncan of the harmonious way in which the Urban Council worked. We finished this talk at about 12.50 p.m.
During the latter part of discussion, Mr. Andrew Stuart (Head of South East Asia & H.K. Division) also took part. I then presented various documents about H.K., including a few U.C. Facts Sheets, to Sir Duncan who seemed to be very happy to receive them. The pamphlets and statistics were given to me by Mr. H.H. Ross. Sir Duncar tendered an invitation to us for Dinner in his club on Thursday to have further discussions, and we accepted with pleasure.
At 1 p.m. we arrived at Lancaster House where Mr. Anthony Royle kindly received us. This luncheon party included prominent Members of Parliament, including the Chairman (Sir John Tilney) and Deputy Chairman of Anglo-H. K. Group. Mr. Ivor Richard was also there. We four took photos with Mr. Anthony Royle before lunch. During lunch, Mr. Royle spoke about Hong Kong, and I was asked to reply. Luncheon Party finished at about 2.30 p.m.
In the afternoon, I and D. Huang visited the Motor Show.
23rd October, 1973. (Tuesday)
Between 9.30 and 11.30 a.m. we visited the Chinese Exhibition.
12 noon to see Sir Robin Vanderfelt, General Secretary of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association. He cutlined the British Parliamentary System. I took back "Salaries and Allowances of Commonwealth Parliamentarians".
Lunch with igel Bicknell and Peter Molloy.
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