Directors. It is a major conference and a number of prominent figures will be speaking including the Governor, Baroness Dunn, Lord Young, and Sir William Purves. The Prime Minister accepted at the bidding of the Governor in January an invitation to
deliver the Keynote Address.
4.
Since this commitment has been in the diary for many months, it is clearly right to reconsider whether a speech by the Prime
Minister on Hong Kong would still be timely in November. I
believe that we can reassure Mr Lyne that there is plenty of
economic/business substance for a speech by the Prime Minister, picking up the theme from his Tokyo speech of a higher priority in our foreign policy for Asia, and applying this to Hong Kong. The Prime Minister would also need to touch on the political
issues.
Some words of firm support for the Governor could in
any case be helpful if we are then approaching a crunch with the
Chinese side.
5. It would also be a blow to the Conference if the
Prime Minister decided to withdraw at short notice.
The Hong
Kong Government have invested considerable time and effort in
it.
1. Ricketts
PF Ricketts
hkwrkcon.min.ADM
SLM