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FOR
ECONOMIST CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF HONG KONG
1.
Hong Kong and General Department will be able to give you the background to the conference which Mark Schreiber of The Economist was arranging on the future of Hong Kong. It had been planned to hold it on 14/15 June in Frankfurt. The project fell through apparently for lack of support.
2.
Although it was not possible for us to stand aside from the conference and Jack Cater, the Hong Kong Commissioner in London, would have attended to sit on one or two of the panels, it was a relief when we heard that the conference had been called off. This was not because we expect to be able to stop discussion of the future of Hong Kong. It is a regular topic in the Hong Kong press and elsewhere. But none of it claims to be authoritative on the question of what the Chinese intend to do about the future. Our concern about the Frankfurt conference was that we learned that at least one Hong Kong businessman, R C Lee, who is known to have contact with the New China News Agency here, intended to make a speech which went into considerable detail about the arrangements which the Chinese might wish to make for the future administration of the territory. Given the charged atmosphere on this issue in Hong Kong it could well have
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Sir Antony Acland KCVO CMG
FCO
CONFIDENTIAL