Flag A
CONFIDENTIAL
Sin D. Watem Ми Mr. Smart Herod
الو
Rober!
PS/Lord Goronwy Roberts
HONG KONG GARMENT INDUSTRY SHOW
1.
Lord Goronwy-Roberts has agreed to the visit by the Governor as proposed in my submission of 4 February (attached). The letter has not, however, yet gone.
2.
Meanwhile I have discussed with Princess Alexandra's
Lady in Waiting, the proposal that the Princess should attend the show at the Hong Kong Government Office on 10 April as the
Guest of Honour. This is referred to in the Governor's letters of
24 January. Miss Mitchell said that, although Princess Alexandra was trying to keep the days around 10 April free for her children, she would, in principle, be prepared to attend if this would be helpful and if her attendance would not be misunderstood. I explained the background to the Queen's visit to Hong Kong in May. The reputation of Hong Kong in the UK had suffered from the recent publicity about corruption. The main damage was to the reputation of the Hong Kong Police, of which Princess Alexandra is the Commandant in Chief. Without minimising the problems, we were trying to increase understanding in the UK of the background within which the honest majority in Hong Kong were working.
It was important that this understanding should be spread more widely before the Queen's visit. Princess Alexandra could undoubtedly help in this.
3.
Nevertheless I agreed with Miss Mitchell that there was a possibility of misunderstanding in Britain if Princess Alexandra appeared to be helping to sell Hong Kong textiles here while British textile manufacturers were in recession. I undertook to
let her have advice on whether these doubts should be sufficient for her to refuse the invitation, with the perfectly genuine reason of her previous engagements with her family, We also discussed whether the same possible objections would apply if Princess Alexandra accepted an invitation to attend the Hong Kong show in Paris, to which the Governor also refers in his letter. Mitchell thought that, although Princess Alexandra might not wish
Miss
CONFIDENTIAL
/to be away