CONFIDENTIAL
HKCC 012/5
RECEIVED
RECIST TOP COPY
Q DIST?
CONFIDENTIAL
6 APR 1993
FM FCO
DESK OFFICES
REG
TO DESKBY 02170OZ MOSCOW IN EX
PA
Action Take.
TELNO 390
OF 021718Z APRIL 93
49
131410
MDHOAN 1164
INFO IMMEDIATE PEKING, HONG KONG, KUALA LUMPUR
INFO IMMEDIATE JAKARTA
PERSONAL FOR PRIVATE SECRETARY TO THE FOREIGN SECRETARY FROM PRIVATE SECRETARY
HONG KONG PERSONAL FOR PS/GH
KULA LUMPUR PERSONAL FOR PS/MR GOODLAD
HONG KONG: LORD PRIOR
1.
See (48
MIFT contains the text of a letter of 1 April from No 10. The department's advice (endorsed by Mr Hum) is set out in the following draft Private Secretary Letter in reply. They have consulted Mr Goodlad by telephone: he would be willing to see Lord Prior as proposed after Easter.
2.
Although the draft reply states the difficulty of offering Lord Prior a meeting with the Secretary of State, there is in fact room in the diary (eg 1030-1000 on Tuesday 13 April) if the Secretary of State wished to see Lord Prior..
3. BEGINS
Thank you for your Letter of 1 April about Lord Prior's wish to call on the Prime Minister before his visit to China.
3. The Foreign Secretary would not want to press the Prime Minister to squeeze Lord Prior into his diary on 15 or 16 April. We note that the Chinese have told Lord Prior that they expect to talk more politics than business with him. This reflects their longstanding aim to put pressure on HMG via the business community. We see some risk that, if Lord Prior calls on the Prime Minister in preparation for his sessions with Chinese Leaders, they will take this as indicating that their pressure tactics on the business community are having the desired effect, and may encourage them to try to use Lord Prior as an intermediary. That could detract from our efforts to get Sino-British talks going through the contacts between Mr Goodlad and Ambassador Ma.
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