2.
7.
If a foreign
The issue is not going to be easy to handle here and this is partly because Hong Kong people expect so ruch more of Britain than they do of other countries. country screws us down they will in the end shrug their shoulders, but if they feel that Britain is doing it, the reaction is far stronger and more emotional. In London, this may sometimes seem difficult to reconcile with another Hong Kong attitude, that Britain should not receive and should not expect any commercial favours from Hong Kong; that our contracts should be awarded always to those who offer us the best buy in commercial terns. Whatever one may think about these attitudes, they are facts of life that we have to bear in mind at both ends of this relationship.
I am sending copies of this letter to the recipients
&.
of yours.
(D.H. Jordan)
Director of Commerce and Industry
M.D. Butler, Esq.,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
London, SW1P 4QU.
c.c.
Sir Michael Palliser, KCMG, UKREP Brussels
P.V. Dodge, Esq., HK Office, Brussels
D.M. Sellers, Esq., HK Government Office, London
P.S. Preston, Esq.; CBE, DTI.
A.C. Stuart, Esq., CPM,
KIOD. ✔
Secretary for Economic Services, Colonial Secretariat, Hong Kong.