FA
-
C27
113
- 8 NOV 1984
From the Private Secretary
Dear Len
ken
CONFIDENTIAL
10 DOWNING STREET
517
Mr Galsworth, MKI
C
Ps
Asker Luce PS/PUS
Sir P Cradock
6 November 1984
Notting hotter bo te dove afout. Ak projected visit to He US whil Furity trigger from No 10.
Hong Kong Agreement
Mr Derek Romas Sv W Harding
Mr Dand Thomas Dr Wilso
SAD
SCAD Dicketts 6/1⁄2 NAD
The Prime Minister has now agreed that she should go
to Peking to sign the Hong Kong agreement before Christmas. She proposes to leave London on the evening of 18 December arriving in Peking late on 19 December, spending the whole of 20 December and the night 20-21 December in Peking, going on to Hong Kong on 21 December. I should be grateful if a proposal in this sense could now be put to the Chinese Government and to the Governor of Hong Kong. (The itinerary is that which you kindly had prepared for me).
The possibility that the Prime Minister will make a brief visit to President Reagan on the way back to the United Kingdom remains open for discussion with the Americans.
Peter Ricketts wrote on 5 November about the implications of this visit for the Prime Minister's postponed visit to South East Asia and Sri Lanka. There is of course no possibility of the Prime Minister fulfilling these visits at Christmas. The next possible opportunity for her to do so will be at Easter 1985, though she would not wish to enter into any firm commitment yet to go then (although I recognise that she has already given President Jaywardene to understand that she will visit Sri Lanka then).
I suggest, therefore, that very shortly before the visit to Peking is announced publicly, the Governments concerned should be told that the visit to Peking is exceptional and undertaken because of the need to sign the Hong Kong agreement before the end of the year, that it is sadly not possible for the Prime Minister to extend ner visit to take in other countries at that time, but that she still hopes to take an early opportunity to visit them in 1985.
looking for site dates
L
شمیر
اد
piwek
L
крас
CD Powell
للسه
Len Appleyard Esq
Foreign and Commonwealth Office