Jahd
سیکاس
نا
Mr Stuart
Bu 25 March
n, Goodfellow
As
Thanks
RESTS
26
Reference...
HKK 6/598/2
20
HONG KONG'S INTERESTS IN EUROPEAN CAPITALS
1. Mr Watt spent the morning of 21 February in the Office. He was accompanied by Mr Kidd for the talks they had with me from 10 am to 11 am and with
Mr Braithwaite (which I attended) from 11 to 12 noon. Mr Watt and I later lunched with Mr Youde.
2. These talks turned out to be more useful for getting over our ideas than finding out what the Hong Kong Government had in mind. Mr Watt said that he was approaching the whole subject with an open mind but it was pretty obvious that he had no real notion of what he was trying to achieve. He did, however, say that he thought the main brunt of Hong Kong's efforts might well be developed through the Trade Development Council Offices, particularly in Hamburg, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Milan and the Hong Kong Tourist Association Office in Paris. The Embassies role would then be to give advice on contacts and on developments of interest to Hong Kong. Both Mr Braithwaite and I supported this idea as it would clearly be more welcome to the Embassies concerned and probably more fruitful. Mr Watt also sought our reaction to the nomination of a Hong Kong official as co-ordinator of this information effort probably to be stationed either in Frankfurt or Brussels. We said we saw no insuperable difficulty over this but this would need to be gone into. Mr Braithwaite made the point although there would have to be some liaison in capitals, Hong Kong was not a political issue in the EEC context. National delegations to Brussels would he thought be influenced on those issues of interest to Hong Kong, eg textiles, by British manufacturers and others who lobbied on textile interests. In Germany, this would be likely to be situated in Hamburg and around Frankfurt, and in Italy, for instance, in Milan. It therefore appeared to be sensible to me that TDC offices should be used as they were geographically in the right place. Similarly, it was probably better to consider Frankfurt as the co-ordinating headquarters. I made the additional point that as the Hong Kong Government already had an officer in Brussels, there might be advantage in having a second man elsewhere.
3. It became clear from the talks that the information sides of the Embassy should also be informed about Mr Watt's tour. Mr Braithwaite has written to the Commercial sections asking them to bring their information colleagues in. He has also written to the appropriate Consulates General.
4.
Subject to confirmation, Mr Watt will come to see us again on 29 March when he hopes to have firmer views.
25 February 1974
ello
M A Goodfellow