Registry
No.
ECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential,
Restricted.
Unclassified,
IVACY MARKING
In Confidence
nals
--
SECRET
DRAFT
MINUTE
To:-
Secretary of State
}
DSR11
Type 1 +
From
Lord Goronwy-oberts
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
1.
My attention has been drawn to Eric Varley's letter of 28 November to Peter Shore in which he suggests that import restrictions against Hong Kong woven shirts should be included in the selective and temporary import controls at present under consideration.
2.
When the Governor of Hong Kong called on me this morning, he expressed considerable anxiety about rumours that have reached the Colony that import controls might be unilaterally imposed upon Hong Kong at a time when we are not yet entirely through the wood on the new Defence Costs Agreement. You will recall that the Heads of such an Agreement were initialled in Hong Kong by Bill Rodgers and the Governor on 1 November. There are to be further
discussions on this at the official level this week and it is hoped to conclude the Agreement when the Governor calls on Bill Rodgers on Friday 5 December with a view to an announcement next week. The Governor's point was that all the good work that has been put into this Agreement, which is bound in any case to be unpopular in Hong Kong, might well be jeopardised if opinion there has to swallow not
only a greater financial contribution to defence but also unilateral action of doubtful legality against her textile imports into this country.
"
3.
The Defence Costs Agreement is extremely valuable to us and is the result of concessions hard won over the past 18 months. I accordingly strongly urge that we should not put this Agreement at risk by the imposition of unilateral restrictions on Hong Kong woven shirts. The present quota
/for these