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CONFIDENTIAL
M. Maydis, Houpha (int second minte, of 10 Mov, attached),
15711
MKKOAO/S
M
Mr Hum
(HK sen)
Mr Loughead
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
2 1 NOV 1983
DESK OFFICER INDEX
PA
co
REGISTKY
Croto
19/
Mr Crowe (by Mufax) Mr Elliott, FED Sir M Butler
1
THE COMMISSION AND HONG KONG
1.
See 576
I spoke to Mr Jenkins (Commission), regretting the rather wide distribution within the Commission which had been given to the record of Thorn's talks with the Chinese on Hong Kong (see the copy I sent you this morning). This included the Spoke smen's Group. Was it possible to retrieve copies or at least caution the recipients to be discreet?
2. Mr Jenkins subsequently rang back to say that he had spoken to Thorn's cabinet who had said, plaintively, that Sir P Cradock had not given the impression that there was anything very new or delicate in what Deng and Thorn's other interlocutors had said.
(This does not correspond with para 9 of Peking telno 1149, which I had not seen at the time.) In Mr Jenkins' view it would only excite attention and interest to try to recall copies of the record, most of all in the case of the Spokesmen's Group. He had, however, spoken to Van Der Pas in the Spokesmen's Group and to John Maslen in DGI to remind them of Thorn's statement that Hong Kong was not his business and to enjoin discretion particularly as regards Derg's comments. Mr Jenkins hoped that this would minimise the risk of any leak.
3. A leak cannot, I fear, be ruled out. But I think Mr Jenkins is right: to try to recall a document in the Commission is to draw immediate attention to it.
4.
I have reported the above by telephone to Mr Elliott in Far East Department.
9 November 1983
CD Prell
$
C D Powell
CONFI
CONFIDENTIAL