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Mr Kale
Sir D Websen
CONFIDENTIAL
Conny-hoberts
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Pl.
42
typpe for my cajucture.
M. Holt (Private
We spoke. проке
THE HONG KONG RESEARCH PROJECT:
Office)
144/44
Ze. Gadmilley
"HONG KONG: A CASE TO ANSWER"
1. Mr Christopher Farley of Spokesman Books has written to
the Secretary of State, demanding a response to the Hong Kong Research Project's booklet "Hong Kong: A Case to Answer".
2.
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Mr Farley sent an advance copy of this booklet to the Secretary of State under cover of his letter of 3 September. Following Lord Goronwy-Roberts's agreement to the recommendation in my submission of 9 September, the Private Secretary sent a letter of acknowledgment on 16 September.
3.
I am still sure that we should not get into a detailed
public discussion of the merits and demerits of the booklet.
The authors are not open to conviction, and their purpose in seeking to open up a dialogue is to obtain ammunition for their attack on the policies of HMG in Hong Kong.
This would not only
complicate the situation in Hong Kong itself; we know that it
would embarrass the Chinese Government.
4.
At our request, the Hong Kong Government have been preparing a commentary on the booklet, the first draft of which is attached. The first Appendix in particular contains useful material on detailed points which can be used unattributably in the right circumstances. But even here the coverage is not complete (there is no reference, for example, to the allegation that Tsoi's name was "picked out of a hat" for execution). To
deal with only some of the erroneous details could be thought to admit the truth of others by implication. The gaps may be filled in the final version of the commentary, but even then I would still advise that any on-the-record response from HMG
should be general rather than detailed.
CONFIDENTIAL
15.