CONFIDENTIAL
F
Lord Goronwy-Roberts said:
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4.
decontam
"Higher priority for PRC means lower priority
elsewhere if there is no increase in resources.
But the magnitude and potential importance of Mrs Williams' deal ought to set us all (ODM, DES and FCO) arguing for an ad hoc special estimate. This is not a matter of a little extra for ELT in
Nepal or the Chad, but a dead set on the Anglicisation at professional levels of a country of 900 million people.....To do this by cutting down elsewhere (especially in Scandinavia and Japan) is to misunderstand the huge opportunity for cultural influence and commercial penetration which the UK/PRC
accord offers."
The nub of the matter is that we now have the opportunity of influencing a significant number of highly educated Chinese, some of whom are going to be later promoted to positions of considerable influence. We should not let this opportunity pass
us by.
5. As the British Council have already found £320,000 a year for China, the additional amount required is £380,000 in 1979/80; £900,000 in 1980/81 and rather more in later years.
6. In view of the restrictions on Government spending, the prospect of obtaining new money is slight. The British Council have found money for China at the expense of activities in Japan, Scandinavia, Australia and Canada; and there is now a case for asking the ODM to take a fair share of the costs of this exercise which is aimed at meeting China's educational and development needs
in our wider interests.
CONFIDENTIAL
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