CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
RJT McLaren Esq CMG Political Adviser Government Secretariat HONG KONG
Telephone 01- 233 3184
Your reference
HKK 040/1
Our reference
Date
-4 March 1982
HKR 040/1
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File
101
65
Dear Robin,
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1. Pan 5/3
SOVIET EMBASSY INTEREST IN THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
1. You may be interested to see the attached copy of Warwick Morris's minute of 17 February. Mr Safronov had in fact touched briefly on the future of Hong Kong when he called on FED in mid-January with some questions about China.
2. We have, of course, no wish whatsoever to encourage Soviet interest in the future of Hong Kong, although if Mr Safronov returns to the charge we may in the end have to see him. So far he has not, but it may be significant that only a few days after his call the Finnish Embassy approached us, again at Second Secretary level, along much the same lines. We have given them the text of the press conference the Lord Privy Seal gave in Hong Kong on 10 January and hope to leave it at that.
HKK 026133
3.
No doubt the large number of press stories, most of them wildly inaccurate, that have been circulating since the Lord Privy Seal's visit are chiefly to blame, but I am afraid that with the change of Governor and the visit of the Prime Minister later in the year we must expect speculation and interest to remain on a higher than usual level for the next six months
or so.
Jams
Dich
R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
cc
Chancery HELSINKI Chancery MOSCOW Chancery PEKING
Mr Elliott FED
Mr Broomfield EESD
CONFIDENTIAL