16 JAN.'90 12:25
FROM COI TECHNICAL RADIO
TO FCO NEWS
PAGE.007/010
TRANSCRIPT B:
P.C. FOREIGN SEC
J.
www.s
HONG KONG 16 JAX 90
--6--
FOREIGE SECRETARY;
I accept, particularly after my useful meeting with ONELCO
last night, my meeting with the Secretary of Council today, my
meetings with not a total spread but really quite large numbers of
people from different parts of the community, that there is
considerable support, strong support, for the consensus which ONELCO
worked out after a great deal of work and effort on their part.
Whether that can be reconciled with the objective of
That search, as I
continuity up to and beyond 1997 is, of course, the question to
which we are still searching for an answer.
indicated, cannot go on for very long.
QUESTION:
Can you give any assurance that Hong Kong interests will not
be ignored when Britain requests negotiations with China on the
political....Bong Kong?
FOREIGN SECRETARY:
Yes, I can, Some people still seem to think that there is
some great British vested interest in Sino-British relations quite
separate from Hong Kong, that there is some consideration which
would lead us to override or neglect Hong Kong's interests.
I have looked in every cupboard in the Foreign Office and I
cannot find any such British interest. The overwhelming factor,
Buch the most important component, in British relations with China