CODE 18-77
SECRET
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FUTURE OF HONG KONG : BRIEFING THIRD COUNTRIES
1.
Mrs Liz Halliday of the New Zealand High Commission and MUE Boulin of the French Embassy have both called this week for briefing on the Secretary of State's visit to Hong Kong and Peking.
2. I briefed Mrs Haliday along the lines of the telegram we had prepared for Camberra, Ottawa and Wellington. She asked how we saw the way ahead and what we considered to be the most difficult issues yet to consider. I said that we faced tough negotiation on all the remaining annexes and in particular on nationality, civil aviaition and constitutional development.
3.
To the best of my knowledge, we have never briefed the French before, Mile Boulin was well informed and had obviously been reading the newspapers. She asked a lot of questions, such as, what were the most important issues left to be resolved and did we think we would succeed in resolving them. She asked what China's attitude towards the agreement (I said the Chinese were anxious to reach an agreement; they too realised its importance) and about reaction in Hong Kong and Mrs Thatcher's attitude towards what had been agreed. She also asked about attitudes in Parliament. I explained that the debate on 16 May had shown that on the whole MP's had a realistic attitude towards the issue. They would no doubt look at any agreement critically and would want to take into account the feelings of the people of Hong Kong.
Jons Am.
J A Klowak
Hong Kong Department
7 August 1984
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15 AUG 1984
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