PS
CONFIDENTIAL
DIE
1. I asked Hong Kong Department to submit now. Our exploration of alternative scenarios on a contingency basis, covering the Prime Minister's original itinerary as a whole, has not taken us very far. Mr Powell's letter intersected with it and posts are not at one on our ideas.
2.
3.
There were two main elements in our exploration:
a) to examine the relative merits of the Christmas,
Easter and Summer recesses;
b)
to examine the merits of detaching the Sri Lanka visit from the package, adding it to the Peking Hong Kong visit and leaving the rest for later.
On the first count, Christmas is very near, Easter sounds very difficult for Number 10, while September would have obvious planning advantages (particularly as settling on a visit then could allow us to give the Malaysians and Indonesians a clear indication of our intentions now). But Mr Gillmore, in particular, thinks that next September is too far off; and both he and Mr Donald think we should keep Easter alive.
4.
On the second count, the suggestion that we de-link the Sri Lanka visit from the South East Asian portion causes Mr Donald no anxiety but Mr Gillmore sees a risk the Malaysians would take umbra ige.
5.
As the debate
stands, and given the thrust of Mr Powell's letter, I see little advantage in re-opening discussion with Number 10 now. Decisions will be for early November. I would propose to instruct Posts to be patient and give nothing away meanwhile.
JDI Boyd
CONFIDENTIAL