13
Flag
Flag B
Amanded
fea
Mr Milton
Mr Stewa
CONFIDENTIAL
Minute malleaf.
A
Stewe
Reference.
(
Dam 27121 have spoken to Dr Stake
soft-to issue.
HONG KONG: LETTER FROM THE ROYAL SOCIETY
1.
jeiks
Please see the letter, dated 11 July, from Dr Stoker, the Royal Society's "Foreign Secretary", to the Head of M&GD.
2.
f
I have prepared a draft reply which has been cleared by: FED, M&GD, STD and CRD. You will see that I have provided two second halves of the draft, the second of which was suggested by EESD. I am uncertain whether the final sentence added to the second option will suggest to Dr Stoker the responsible and careful way in which the Hong Kong Government consider all applications for visas or lead him to think of and ask about the criteria which the Hong Kong Government would use when doing the considering. I prefer the first option: on fine balance EESD argue for the second. We agreed to put both before you.
3. It has been suggested and I think you agreed that before despatching the draft, you should ring Dr Stoker, give him a little more of the background and explain why and where the draft cannot be more forthcoming. I understand that while the Royal - Society is not a totally discreet organisation at present, Dr Stoker himself is both discreet and reliable. I am told that he leads a party from the Royal Society to the, Foreign Office once a year for talks at which a fair amount of classified information is made available to him and the Society on a non-attributable basis. I suggest, therefore, that you take him quite far into your confidence. The sort of line that has been suggested is as
follows:-
{
"You wrote to Adrian Buxton... I am afraid that the only written answer that I can give you is short and not very helpful. It simply says that
so I thought I would ring you now and explain a little more of the background which, you will understand, is of a confidential nature. For a variety of rather doubtful reasons the Russians and East Europeans have long sought to establish a presence in Hong Kong. The Communist Chinese are very sensitive indeed about their attempts. Past experience suggests that the Soviets and East Europeans, if granted visas for Hong Kong indiscriminately, might exploit this facility in a way that aggravated the Communist Chinese and was therefore detrimental to Sino/British relations over Hong Kong. [Hence HMG has a fairly restrictive policy towards visa applications from Warsaw Pact countries. The Soviets are well aware that we have a considered policy with regard to Hong Kong visas and of our They reasons for not granting them in certain circumstances. test it every now and again and it is in this light that I see Academician Brekhovskik's letters. I am sure he will not be surprised if he gets a bland response.]
CODE 18-77
$$ 10/76
22 July 1977
کر که که
Jand
T J David
Hong Kong & General Dept
CONFIDENTIAL