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CONFIDENTIAL
11. Stewart
or
Leen (contrivetin
minute to my submission,
before Glickmar, on a Ворте
Puer Renew) Dim
a
1. I am in no position to judge whether this review is an
accurate reflection of press Hong Kong public opinion. the compiler may, if only subconsciously, have selected items to
reflect his own view.
comments in Hong Kong, still less of. There is always the possibility that
2. It is difficult not to think that there must have been some pretty tendentious leaks by people within Hong Kong Government circles (officials or unofficials) to provide a basis for these comments. The fact is that we have throughout worked on the basis of a dialogue with the Governor who declared in July his support for the conclusions of the planning paper. These were not imposed on him. Yet it is being alleged that there have been unjustifiable pressures on the Hong Kong Government. Sir A Royle and others say that there is talk in Hong Kong that before I took over as DUS Hong Kong had no problems and was able to pursue its policies without interference from London. It is, of course, untrue to say that Hong Kong had no problems in the past or that there were no pressures for reform. There has been much concern in London for years about social policies in Hong Kong. Our aim in the preparation of the planning paper was to reach agreement on an overall and coordinated policy for Hong Kong which took account of the three dimensions (British, Chinese and Hong Kong) and at the same time ensured further progress in dealing with some of the more distressing social conditions in Hong Kong.
3.
I agree with Mr Milton that the Hong Kong Government could do If the more by advance consultation and mobilisation of opinion. Minister agrees I suggest that we might take up with the Governor the distortion in current press comments and the best way to deal with these. The Governor has recently reaffirmed publicly that current policies not only have his whole hearted upport, but have not been imposed on him and are the result of continuing dialogue with London (telegram No 1283).) We might also ask him for his views on how the stories may have been started.
He has
CONFIDENTIAL
/ asserted