CONFIDENTIAL
minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note
PRIVATE SECRETARY
DEPARTMENT:
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
TO:
Top Secret
Secret
Confidential
Restricted
Unclassified
PRIVACY MARKING
CAVEAT..
TEL. NO:
TYPE: Draft/Final 1+
Reference
RP Hatfield Esq
Private Secretary/Secretary of
Cabinet
Cabinet Office
Your Reference
Copies to:
C D Powell Esq No 10
SUBJECT:
..In Confidence
CIRCULATION OF MINISTERIAL CORRESPONDENCE: HONG KONG
1.Thank you for your letter of 4 July.
2.
We have noted all the points you have made, and shall
do our utmost to comply more closely with your
requirements in future.
You will appreciate, however,
:
that we are dealing with a diplomatic negotiation of
great pace and complexity; that each move has to be the
subject of precise consultation with the Peking Embassy
and the Hong Kong Government; that the Hong Kong
Executive Council also has a role to paly in advising the
Governor; and that crowded programmes of Ministerial
travel make it difficult to fit in the direct consultation
with our Ministers that is frequently necessary before
our papers can be prepared. In all these circumstances
I fear that we may still sometimes fall short of the
ideal.
Enclosures--flag(s).
CONFIDENTIAL