CODE 18-77
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Mr Morrice (HKGD)
cc Mr McLaren
CONFIDENTIAL
سال
17.5.
HKK 026/2
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20
(28) the way J2.5
2245
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26.5.81.
MR PETER SHORE : VISIT TO CHINA WITH THE TRILATERAL COMMISSION
1. Mr Shore called on Mr Donald on 13 May accompanied by Sir Philip de Zulueta. Mr Shore called alone on Lord Carrington today. Most of the discussion was extremely general but I should record that both Mr Donald on 13 May and Lord Carrington on 14 May steered Mr Shore firmly away from seeking any comment from Chinese leaders on the future of Hong Kong. Mr Donald also emphasised the need to say as little as possible on the subject in Hong Kong, drawing attention to the remarks made by Mr David Steel MP at his press conference there.
2. Lord Carrington specifically said that in his view the Chinese did not wish to think about Hong Kong at present. They had more serious current problems and hoped that the reiteration of their general assurances to investors would meet our requirements. This was self-evidently not enough but Lord Carrington saw no purpose in pressing the Chinese at present,
3. Mr Shore asked if he could have a copy of Deng Xiaoping's statement on Hong Kong. The Secretary of State asked that we should provide this, but on the way out Mr Lyne and I explained to Mr Shore that the statement amounted to no more than 'setting hearts at ease'. Mr Shore accepted that there was no need for us to send him a text.
4.
One other point of interest to HKGD was that Mr Shore said that he supposed that the Nationality Bill would come up during his visit to Hong Kong. Lord Carrington confirmed that people in Hong Kong were cross about this but he thought that a number of amendments introduced by Mr Whitelaw in response to representations from Hong Kong had taken the steam out of the issue. But the point was that people there could not understand why they could no longer have 'British' on their passports. He, Lord Carrington, could not recall any of the arguments which the Home Office had put forward against this. For his part he considered the Nationality Bill to have been mistaken. Most of what it set out to achieve was already in practice achieveable and it had only stirred up a hornets nest. answer to a question by Mr Shore he said that, apart from the special category of those who served the Crown, people in Hong Kong accepted that in the event of a Chinese takeover they could not come to the UK...
AKK 026/4
In
14 May 1981
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H L Davies
Far Eastern Department
جا جائے
CONFIDENTIAL
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