香港總督府
CONFIDENTIAL
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
2nd. October, 1973.
Des Ducan
I have heard echoes from the City that suggest a whispering campaign is building up in official ( not business) circles against the part Hong Kong is playing over its sterling reserves and the present weakness of sterling.
As I understand it, the story being put around is critical not so much of Hong Kong's actual position as to the Hong Kong Government's handling of it, and in particular, of the part played by Philip Haddon-Cave himself.
We clearly are going to need to defend ourselves against this insidious, if perhaps understandably human form of attack. I suspect this is largely defensive, as the City is critical of the Treasury's own handling and it is natural for the latter to point a finger at someone else. I would therefore like to put on record two points of detail.
The first concerns the article in the business section of the "Daily Telegraph" of 28th. September, by Kenneth Fleet, the City Editor, from Nairobi. If you remember, this was alleged to have caused a drop in the market on the grounds that Hong Kong's refusal to accept the terms of H.M.G.'s unilateral guarantee. This resulted from Fleet being present at a conversation between Sayer, Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and Mr. Nott, the Minister of State. At the conclusion of the conversation, Fleet asked Nott if he could quote what he had heard and, according to Sayer, Nott confirmed that he had no objection.
Sir Duncan, Watson,
KCMG.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
S.WA