French first meeting broke down
their new
-
leader, Paul Ravier, introduced a new ploy
he offered a concession, which the Chinese
inevitably rejected as "not meeting our
requirements", to which he remarked tarṭly
that if the Chinese didn't like it, the
French side would take it back. The French
delegation then went on a series of sight-
seeing trips. But the UK had the senior
Bank of China negotiator, Mr Yu, and the
weaker CLP component. One suspects that the
Bank of China were only too glad to have
the most aggressive and difficult CLP
character in baulk designated for negotiations with the French which were in suspense. But
for the UK, there were a series of meetings,
one or two a day, going over the "requirements"
and "UK positions", while we consulted the
French during the breaks.
features:
Interesting
(a) Exchange of Chairmanship
p
Mr Yu
invited the UK to take the chair on alternate
sessions, and observed this meticulously,
even ticking off his own troops. China-
experts remarked that this was an unusual
procedure. But despite the cordial way the
negotiations were conducted, this did put
-
27