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Used to continuous construction of new buildings in Hong Kong, the group were nevertheless impressed by the scale of the London Docklands Development Corporation's scheme. In particular they appreciated the variety and quality of design and low height of the buildings. They were surprised that the plans for two high-rise towers on Canary Wharf had been passed, and thought these buildings would be environmentally unacceptable. Mr Wightman, Sales Manager, had recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong, promoting the Docklands scheme and attempting to interest Hong Kong businessmen in investing in projects there.
At the Houses of Parliament Mr Ian Herman and Mr Chris Potter, Chairman of the Lobby Correspondents, met the group for lunch. They explained parliamentary procedure and traditions and described the scene during question time. Following Prime Minister's Questions Mr David Healey, Correspondent for the South China Post, briefly met the group and promised to contact Mr Lau for further discussions.
The Rt. Hon. Sir Peter Blaker, MP, Chairman of the British-Hong Kong Parliamentary Group, met the journalists for a brief discussion about the Anglo-Chinese Agreement, and, as Sir Peter had to leave for another meeting, talks on this subject continued with Mr Roger Syms, Treasurer of the Group.
Before leaving the Palace of Westminster, we briefly visited the House of Lords.
The visit to the Stock Exchange was very much enjoyed by the group, in spite of there being little activity on the floor. They were particularly interested in the SEAQ system and the efforts being made to prevent fraud and insider dealing.
At Lloyd's Mr David Larner accompanied half the group, and Mr John Davies, Press Officer, accompanied the remainder on a tour of the building. Prior to this visit the group had had a very hazy idea of Lloyd's and had confused it with the banking group. They displayed considerable interest in the organisation and discussions continued over lunch. Mr Larner had recently visited China which was of much interest to the group.
Mr Barry Simpson, Assistant Marketing Manager at Reuters Ltd, welcomed the group and left them to watch a film about the company which, due to its not being fully in focus, lost some of its quality and impact. They were then shown some of the new technology and services offered by Reuters, which put the company in the forefront of information science. The group were particularly quiet and unresponsive during this visit, but showed a little more interest in the new pictures terminal which Mr Simpson had recently been promoting in Hong Kong and Singapore.
I was not present at the meeting and lunch at the BBC External Services, but understand that the journalists found it very interesting.
The Press Council was of especial interest to the group as they were all of the
The Attorney opinion that such as organization was required in Hong Kong. General had attempted to set up a Press Council two years ago but this had been resisted as the press had believed it would not be independent of Government. They were concerned that press freedom would be drastically reduced in 1997.
The group appeared to be interested in the discussions about Hong Kong which took place at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and over lunch.
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