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し
member state (e.g. ourselves) since this might give offence
to the Dutch and would in any case be contrary to Chinese.
wishes since the impression
that they had given was that
they wanted to keep the matter at a strictly Commission/
vasis
China position.
4. In view of all this, the two Commission officials
leading the visit - Michael Davies, Director of the Nuclear
Directorate and Aitken, who are both British
wondered
whether they might be given a briefing in Hong Kong before
70
going into China. Following correct Community procedure woudl require them to seek a briefing from the Dutch
Consul-General.
However, they doubted that this would
give them much real insight and asked whether they could be given briefing by the British authorities there, both on the general political situation in China and on Chinese
resources policy. Although they would be accompaniedt (hinn
by two other Commission officials Bourdeau and Ting-as
་ཤད་གནཐད་ལ་།། ཚི་ well as some national consultants from individual states,
-
the briefing would be kept informal and restricted to
Davies and Aitken.
5. I said that I was slightly surprised that this request
had come to me directly rather than/UKREP Brussels but
Underwood
vring sim
instead that the approach was made on the basis of an old
shiver de
she d
friendship. Aitken explained this rather unorthodox method
on the grounds that the Commission preferred not to have
any contact with any member state in Brussels at this stage
Leout of it and
for fear that the French would try and prevent the mission 'taking place: However, he understood that if I would were to
pursue the matter, UKREP Brussels would have to be
brought in on it. That apart, I said that I could think
of no objections from the Hong Kong point of view to the the minin
میستار
being given an informal run-down on the latest position
་་༧་
in China, as seen from Hong Kong-British eyes. It would be
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