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particularly since the German press is decentralised (Spiegel for example is published from Hamburg). As you may imagine, our priority information fields are in any case the EC and defence and bilateral relations. But I have always kept an eye on Hong Kong interests and will continue to do so.
4. Could I perhaps revert in this context to a suggestion which my Embassy made last year, and about which I believe you were consulted? This was that
Murray MacLehose, who had only just retired, might be asked whether he would be prepared to do a short tour of this country speaking about Hong Kong. We were told at the time that it had been decided not to pursue the idea because there were political reasons for keeping a low profile, and I can well understand this. But there are a good many misconceptions about Britain's colonial heritage in this otherwise extremely friendly country, particularly perhaps. because Germany's own attempts to create an empire beyond Europe were cut short by wars and have left something of a "holier than thou" attitude (Namibia notwithstanding). I do not know if Murray would be available. But I think that a well-publicised lecture tour about Hong Kong could help to diminish the misconceptions, and to counter the influence on German opinion of articles such as this in Spiegel. We could direct it particularly at the Government and the business community, both investors and traders.
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