Registry
No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
DRAFT
LETTER
To:-
HE Sir M Maclehose
Governor
HONG KONG
1. cc under
DSRIT
my comp/3 to T. Duffy HKD (3 2. Enter MFA
Reneg
Type 1 +
From # Cortazzi H. Aray Telephone No, Ext.
運
D. Murray
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
.............................................. In Confidence
diseases In fund & I had with him over luncheon.
Department
THE FUTURE OF THE MULTIFIBRE ARRANGEMENTS (MFA)
1. I am writing in reply to your telegram no. 131 of
4 February on this subject and in the light of the useful talks which Whitehall officials had with David Jordan on
8 February I think it is important for me to set out the
way in which opinion is forming both within Whitehall and
in the Community.
2. I think the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is fully
importance
aware of the matters which textile production holds in
the economy of Hong Kong and the fact that disruption of that production is likely to have a serious effect on the
econom-
fulfilment of Hong Kong's social programmes as wèll as
on business confidence in general. We are ensuring that
This is, indeed,
christ
these facts are fully understood within Whitehall.
En Comm
人
I am
sure that you are also aware of the serious difficulties
which face the Community's textile industry and especially
that of the UK. Unemployment levels in the UK textile
ave
E
industry were extremely high and there was little hope of
reducing them in the immediate future. This is a serious
and political,
rored of Clied
social problem and in the short or medium term it will not factis veel it viat
A
be possible to follow through the standard macro-economic
arguments about developed countries upgrading their
technology to accommodate exports from developing countries.
/It
138649 Dd.107857 500M 2/76 MFP
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL