CONFIDENTIAL
C.S. 41A
GOVERNment SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
布政司署
香港下亞
畢道
22 July 1977
31
本署檔號 OUR REF.: CR 2/5701/77
28 JUL 1977
* YOUR Ref.:
1CX353/558/1
LAST
D Milton Esq.,
RCAT
REF.
HKGD
FCO
London SW1A 2AH
Dear
Dratruely
Di
2
2517
Делек,
TRANSIT THROUGH HONG KONG OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF WESTERN SAMOA.
1. You may wish to have a line or two about the passage through Hong Kong of Tupola Efi, the Prime Minister of Western Samoa, between 4 and 6 June, on his way to attend the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference. The snippets may be of some value in the context of relations with and policy towards that territory.
2. The Prime Minister, his wife and a party of four stayed here for two days and were extended the usual courtesies by the Director of Protocol. Soon after their arrival at the Mandarin Hotel, the Prime Minister and his party were visited by a junior representative of the New China News Agency. This was obviously
a courtesy call. During it the Prime Minister was measured for some suits by a tailor brought by the NCNA man!
3. The next day two representatives of the NCNA danced attendance on the Prime Minister. During the exchanges between the Samoans and the NCNA people, we gather the subject of international con- ferences came up and one of the NCNA representatives commented favourably on the facilities available in Hong Kong, suggesting that it would be a suitable location for Pacific Conferences.
4.
Apart from the courtesies extended by the Chinese communists to the Prime Minister while he was here, we picked up a few personal comments from Tupola Efi. He sad how much he enjoyed eating Chinese food, following this with the comment that the Chinese Mission in Apia had their priorities right in the sense that out of a group of eight, two of them were cooks and that this was the reason for the excellent meals. We also discovered that the Chinese Mission in Apia is trying to buy its residence there although a recent offer of US$750,000 for the premises was refused by the Samoans.
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5. I think the only points of political interest are, first, the assiduousness with which the Chinese machine took care of the visitors even in transit through Hong Kong and, secondly, that the Chinese in Apia have already made a favourable impression (albeit gastronomic) on the Prime Minister.
6.
The Prime Minister left for London on 6 June. untoward happened during the transit.
Nothing
Yours
ever,
Alaw Fonald
(A.E.Donald)
copied to:
Mr H Smedley, CMG.,MBE(Mil.) WESTERN SAMOA. Chancery, PEKING.
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