The Right Honourable Lord Shawcross GBE QC
1481
Rw
HOUSE OF LOROS
HKA 431/393/6
- 2 OCT 1979
IGEN
1
32 (INDIA)
33 LOMBARD STREET
LONDON EC3P 3BH
C3P
COPIED TO H
18th September 1979
The Rt. Hon. The Lord Carrington KCMG, MC, Secretary of State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs,
Downing Street,
1.
London SW1A 2AL.
Acknowledgement
2. Secretary of State has/has not seen
3.
Ke Department for
draft reply from 1.7. Ila he
19 SEP 1979
ALLOCATIONS SECTION
Blake
{ draft by 25 sprecher poe) fc is mishke
Nour Seculary of State:
~19/9.
PS 1.0.2
I hesitate very much in writing to you at a time when you are so much preoccupied and I hope you will not think it an impertinence that I should write at all about the Governorship of Hong Kong.
Emla
Although, however, I have never resided in Hong Kong I consider myself one of its oldest inhabitants! I am on one or two Boards there and have various interests which result in my being a pretty frequent visitor. I have known and stayed with every Governor since the war and I also have some interest and friends in China, my last visit having been to Tibet with Pamela Egremont. We beat Ted by some months! All this must be my excuse for writing.
Hong Kong is at a particularly critical point in its development. Perhaps indeed it always is, but quite apart from the internal economic problems and the refugees it is the case that Murray MacLehose is the first Governor to have received the kind of official recognition from Peking which was accorded to him and that he has started a dialogue which may lead to at least acquiescence in a policy regarding the New Territory leases which I suspect may resemble a formula I suggested now quite some time ago. I feel myself and I know that this view is widely held in Hong Kong that the best course if it were possible would be for Murray MacLehose to stay on for a further period. One of the
reasons for this is that there is no very obvious successor: Murray MacLehose not only had the unusual combination of knowledge of the area, its language and policies but he also possesses a remarkable political sense and without being in the least starchy, he "looks" the part. All these are important considerations in the Colony. And in Peking.
I had intended to say all this to Peter Blaker but he left on his visit to Hong Kong a few days earlier than I had thought, and I
/missed him.....