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I should record that Sir W McMahon (Australian Prime Minister in 1971/72) telephoned the High Commission on 16 September asking to speak to "somebody senior". He was put through to me, and explained that he had seen an article from "The Australian" of
NYX today (copy attached: it is in fact a piece by David Bonavia of
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"The Times") and that this had reminded him of a meeting he had had in 1977 in the Great Hall of the People in Peling with a Mr T'an Chi-Lin, who he described as a senior Chinese commander who had worked with Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. T'an had said that there was no way that the Chinese would wish to take over control of Hong Kong because they depended so heavily on the money they got from it. T'an had been most emphatic about this. On a subsequent visit to China, Sir W McMahon mentioned T'an's sentiment to Geng Biao, who was apparently then Defence Minister, in the course of a lengthy audience. Geng had at first ridiculed the idea, but on being told that it had come from T'an had changed his tune entirely and had said that it was probably correct. Sir W McMahon said that he had reported it at the time to "your people" in Hong Kong. He was unsure to whom he had actually spoken: it might have been the Governor, or the Chief Justice.
2. I was unsure as to Sir W McMahon's exact reasons for telling us this. He did stress that what T'an had said to him was much the same as what had been leaked recently about the negotiations, according to Bonavia's article. (Although, on reading the article,
I cannot say I agree with him.)
3. I report this for what it is worth. I told Sir W McMahon that I did not have sufficient knowledge of the Hong Kong negotiations to comment, but I thanked him and undertook to pass this on. also asked me to give his best wishes to HC.
He
19 September 1983
cc: Hong Kong Dept, FCO
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