Encl. 1
H
27.
V.
Developments following the harch 1977
Textiles Committee Meeting
Towards the end of March, two UK Government officials responsible for looking after Hong Kong's interests in the UK - Mr. D.F. Murray, Assistant Under-Secretary in the Foreign and Common- wealth Office, and Mr. J.A.B. Stewart, Head of the FCO's Hong Kong Department were in Hong Kong on a routine visit. They were given a paper (extract at Enclosure 1) prepared by the Department in which the Department examined Mr. Neacher's speech in the House of Commons on 21 February 1977 (see paragraph 22 above); and attempted to show that there was nothing wrong with the provision of the MFA; that the "improvements" the UK was seeking would not in fact bring about the results they wanted; and that they were so unecessary and/or so unacceptable, to the majority of the participating countries that if the EC insisted on them, they would bring about a breakdown in the multilateral discussions. In discussions with Messrs. Murray and Stewart, they accepted that Hong Kong's arguments against the UK's policy were strong; that that policy appeared to be unsoundly based; and that the UK Government seemed to be adopting a policy which was likely to lead to an impasse in Geneva and this would not be in the interest of either Hong Kong or the UK. It was agreed that although there was no hope of securing a change in UK policy at this stage, they should nevertheless try now to get the point across at a very high level within the UK Government that the modifications which the UK was now seaking were either unsound or unnecessary, might lead to a breakdown in the KFA talks, in preparation for the time when the line pursued by the EC results in an impasse, and the E would be forced to reconsider their negotiating directive. -as a firat step Mr. Jordan wrote in early April to Sir Peter Carey
along these lines.
and
SRIAL
/28.
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