CONFIDENTIAL
153556
MDHIAN 2106
5. WE HAVE RECEIVED A SERIES OF ENQUIRIES FROM JOURNALISTS ABOUT WHETHER WE HAVE APPROACHED THE MFA ON THIS ISSUE. AFTER CONSULTATION WITH DPA HONG KONG, WE ARE DEPLOYING THE FOLLOWING PRESS LINE :
''AS YOU WILL BE AWARE THE HONG KONG GOVERNMENT IS TRYING TO RESOLVE THIS LOCAL PROBLEM THROUGH NORMAL BORDER LIAISON CHANNELS. ALTHOUGH THE GUANGDONG AUTHORITIES HAVE AGREED TO A MEETING IN PRINCIPLE, NO DATE HAS YET BEEN SET. THE EMBASSY HAS EXPLAINED TO THE CHINESE MFA THE WISH OF THE HONG KONG AUTHORITIES FOR AN EARLY MEETING OF THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES IN ORDER TO FIND AN ERARLY RESOLUTION OF THIS PROBLEM''.
IF ASKED ABOUT REPORTS IN THE HONG KONG PRESS THAT I MADE THE APPROACH TO THE MFA, WE ARE SAYING THAT IT WAS NOT I BUT ONE OF MY STAFF.
DONALD
YYYY
ΜΑΙΝ
30
LIMITED
HKD
FED
NEWS D
NNNN
DISTRIBUTION
30
MR MCLAREN
MR BURNS
MISS SPENCER
PAGE 2 CONFIDENTIAL