1
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret,
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted.
Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
구
In Confidence
DRAFT
To:-
CONFIDENTIAL
LETTER
M S Morris Esq
Assistant Under Secretary
Shipping Policy Division
Department of Trade
1 Victoria Street
London SW1
Type 1 +
From
Miss Brown
Telephone No. Ext.
Department
UK/CHINA SHIPPING
DSR 11
:
1.
Since we met on 14 February, I gather that our
people have been in touch and have been able to
reach agreement without any difficulty on the line
that British officials should take with the Chinese
during Mr Varley's visit to persuade the Chinese to
give us what we want on cargo sharing. I understand
that the brief takes the line that we stand the best
chance of achieving our objectives for some time if we
try to get them under the Economic Co-operation
Agreement using all the leverage which Mr Varley's
visit provides. By the same token, therefore, we
should not give the Chinese the opportunity to
defer consideration of our ideas to another round
in the talks about the Maritime Agreement. Of course,
if we do not get what we want under the ECA we can
try to obtain it under the Maritime Agreement, but
clearly with less political leverage and more
potential problems over Hong Kong, the prospects
will not be very good.
2. These general lines were set out in Richard Samuel's
letter of
February to Arthur Pryor which I
gather you hadhot seen at the time of our meeting.
I am
sure that this is the right way to proceed and
that the next move is to wait and see what news
comes out of the Varley visit. We can then take a
further look at the situation.
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