Page
RESTRICTED
Гнив
ThiR 12/3
Mr Jax
Mr
Morri
Mr Stp 3!17
Stand Mr Fume 3/8
pa 1
Mr Ricketto Association
HKD
Prettes arde stuff.
for C. Powell (who lunched mits
the for. this week) 239 fe more subtle
LUNCH WITH MR HENRY KESWICK
FROM: C O Hum
DATE: 30 July 1992
CC:
PS/Mr Goodlad Sir J Coles o.r.
Private Secretary Government House (by fax)
1. Mr Henry Keswick (Chairman of Mathesons) gave me lunch today. We discussed a wide range of Hong Kong issues. Most of what Mr Keswick said was very predictable, and need not be recorded. As always he expressed himself in very highly coloured terms but also warned me against taking him too literally.
2. A few points are worth reporting. Mr Keswick expressed great bitterness about what he described as a consistent policy of harassment of "British interests" in Hong Kong. He claimed that successive Governors had pursued a vendetta against Jardines, with the support of the FCO, from the moment that Jardines had moved their base from Hong Kong to Bermuda. In particular Lord Wilson had conducted a campaign aimed at subjecting Jardines to measures of regulation which had become more and more constraining. Under Lord Wilson the Hong Kong Government had pursued a policy of "Fabian socialism" which was expressly directed against British interests. This continued even now: for example instead of quietly allowing Cable & Wireless to maintain their telecommunications monopoly in Hong Kong, to the benefit of British interests, the Hong Kong Government had taken the decision yesterday to open the domestic telephone service to competition.
3. Mr Keswick said he recognised however that the source of power over such matters had now shifted to Hong Kong. It was now Mr Patten who had to be lobbied, and Jardines would do so relentlessly. He had the highest regard for Mr Patten, but ultimately the extent of cooperation which he would receive from Jardines and other British companies in Hong Kong would depend on the extent to which he was ready to defend and promote "British interests" as defined by Mr Keswick.
4. Mr Keswick made this hint at blackmail still more explicit in what he said about Parliamentary and media perceptions. He claimed that when in the past HMG had received a bad press over Hong Kong this had been a direct result of the efforts of himself and his colleagues in the Hong Kong Association. A few lunches with editors in the Savoy Grill, and he could orchestrate a
RESTRICTED