CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
Telephone 01-
32
HE Mr E Youde CMG MBE
PEKING
LAST
REF.
(28) +(36)
Dear Tality,
HONG KONG: A CASE TO ANSWER
1.
Your reference
Our reference
HKK 13/15
Date
14 October 1974
Thank you for your letter of 28 September.
We will make the amendment you suggest both in this context (on which there have been no further enquiries) and in any other.
2.
Your letter prompts me to make another enquiry, which I have already put to FED, but for which there does not seem likely to be any answer in London. In your telegram no. 718 you suggested that the authors of the booklet might have been briefed by the Chinese Embassy here about the Representative. Your reasons for this suggestion look valid; and it would not, I suppose, be surprising if the Chinese Ambassador had taken an opportunity to promote this line. But a more disturbing thought occurs to me. If the authors of the booklet are in touch with the Chinese Embassy, is it even remotely possible that they might also have some Chinese licence for their conclusion that, although the Chinese Government do not demand the return of Hong Kong, they would welcome action by the British proletariat to hand it back?
3. This would run counter to every assessment we have made about current Chinese policy on Hong Kong, as well as to their plans for Macao, as we understand them. It seems much more likely that the authors' conclusions are their own. But, since you raised the hare of official Chinese briefing, you may also like to consider this possible extension of the implications, however remote that possibility may be.
Needless to say FED agreed this letter, but they are at the moment busy on other thing
Yours cre
Andrew
A C Stuart
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.
сс
A E Donald Esq
Political Adviser HONG KONG