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Mr Morris

CONFIDENTIAL

Mr Clift

Let

по же

What стречение

HEADS OF MISSIONS CONFERENCE

Reference........

ник очев

from the

emerges from

B2/12 164 1/2

ارد

1. You asked for my observations on Mr Brash's letter of 8 November to Mr Burns.

2.

PA

....1

This is a follow-up to Jakarta telno.298. Mr Brash believes that the Indonesians are interested in the future of Hong Kong, and that they, and other South East Asian countries, might be willing to help, perhaps in an indirect way, towards the maintenance of the territory's status quo. He has also proposed that the subject of Hong Kong should be discussed at the Heads of Missions conference.

3. In fact, the agenda for the Conference has now been finalised. Hong Kong does not appear as a separate item, but Lord Belstead will be speaking on it in the opening session. As for the possibility of making use of the SE Asia countries to 'inter- nationalise' the Hong Kong issue, we have previously considere and rejected this. Although there is no reason why at a later stage the idea should not be reviewed if the status quo seems more propitious, I feel that to do anything of this kind now would only upset the Chinese. It is difficult in any case to see how the Indonesians could be of use, and they do not have diplomatic relations with the PRC.

4.

Situat

In the meantime, it is encouraging to note that Indonesia has not (yet) taken active steps to lure Hong Kong investment in the same way as have Thailand, Philippines etc!

CODE 18.77

حد

7 December 1982

whom we

RJ F Hoare

on

much

I doubt if

we could in all honesty expect help from Asean countries, except perhaps from hee

have already

considered. But Kuan Yew if a clear line comes out of the Conference to the contrary

we should certaity consider whether the any

advantage in talip ay of the Asean leaders

Eterests and He aside! year that their own personal wish to see an end to colonialism will make them unlikely akies.

is

من

7/12

CONFIDENTIAL

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