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CONFIDENTIAL
Ms Phillips
10 Downing Street
bane
&
PRIME MINISTER'S LUNCH FOR THE ANGLO-HONG KONG TRUST,
13 MARCH
Thank you for your letter of 28 February requesting briefing for this lunch.
It would be helpful if the Prime Minister could take advantage of this lunch, which will be attended by some fairly influential Hong Kong businessmen, to emphasise HMG's continuing commitment to Hong Kong and our determination to continue to do everything we can to ensure a prosperous and stable future for the territory and its people. Remarks such as these would be well received and would spread widely through the business community.
This
The Prime Minster might also take this opportunity to stress that we see a close working relationship with China over Hong Kong as fundamental to the territory's future well being. He might say that China's desire to be informed -about major Hong Kong issues with post-1997 implications as
understandable and that we were willing to do more to explain our policies to the Chinese, but only provided that the authority of the Hong Kong Government was not undermined in the process.
BOWABU/1
CONFIDENTIAL