Mr Paul, Hong Kong Dept
CONFIDENTIAL
Hong Kong: PR
I am minuting separately in response to Mr Burns' submission of 8 February about dealings with the media over Hong Kong. While the Secretary of State was considering that question, it occurred to him that we also had a problem of getting the Hong Kong message across to other ministries in Whitehall. He had in mind in particular recent Hong Kong questions involving Lord Young. However, other ministries, for example the Home Office, the Treasury, the Department of Transport, etc also have frequent cause to deal with matters involving Hong Kong. The Secretary of State wonders whether we should be doing more to keep his ministerial colleagues informed about the way things are going on Hong Kong, the objectives of our policy, the sensitivities, our achievement over the Basic Law and so on. One device for getting the message across would be minutes on the OD net. You may, however, be able to think of other ways of handling the problem.
10 February 1989
Cc:
PS/Lord Glenarthur PS/PUS
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Burns, News Dept Hd/HKD
Hd/Info Dept
(R N Peirce)
CONFIDENTIAL