309
Mr Murray
PS/Mr Judd
KE
CONFIDENTIAL
H.KK 12.
11 NO
فارما
HONG KONG: TEXTILE NEGOTIATIONS
1. The Governor of Hong Kong rang me at home as soon as he had received our telegram no. 859. He agreed to instruct his team in Brussels not to take any action either by withdrawing further from negotiations or by making any statement; until such time as he had received the ministerial message forecast in the telegram.
2. He said that the advice from his negotiating team was that a pause in the negotiations was now desirable as it appeared that Ir Tran van Tring had been acting during the past few days in a distressingly irrational manner. According to the Governor, Mr Tran was ringing the Hong Kong delegation in Geneva and trying to persuade the senior officer there to press the negotiating delegation in Brussels to accept his, Tran's, position and saying that he had been privately assured that the British Government fully supported the ultimatum put by Tran to the delegation.
3. The Governor reminded me that he did not have full control over his delegation. A large part of it consisted of Unofficials who represented the textile trade in Hong Kong.
10 November 1977
00:
po
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
PS/PUS
Mir Cortazzi
JA B Stewart
Hong Kong & General Dept
Mr Fretwell
Lr Hibbert
ir Butler
Mr Thomas
Mr Jenkins
CONFIDENTIAL
(310)