position to do anything about it.
Our understanding however is that the main reason for postponing the question of making such a statement was not that China was in no position to take any action, but that the statement was likely to give rise to actual difficulties for H.M.G. in the field of international relations. I should like to make this clear to MacDougall in sending a copy of your letter out to him. The second passage is the reference in the last paragraph but two of your letter to the decision "not to pursue for the time being, and until we can see more clearly what is going to happen in China, the proposal to seek from Ministers a decision on future policy in regard to Hong Kong So far as I can see from our records there was never any agreement to defer this question until we could see more clearly what is going to happen in China. That might, in fact, involve postponement for quite a long time. As I understand it the decision was to defer for the time being without any particular indication as to when the matter might be brought up again, and I should like to tell MacDougall that this was our understanding of the position in sending him a copy of your letter.
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As to the other point, namely the question of consultation with the Portuguese Government about Hong Kong and Macao, I think I should be bound to tell him that the views expressed in the third paragraph of your letter are those of the Foreign Office and say that if he has any views on the question we shall of course be very glad to have them.
Yours sincerely,
Hom
(N.L. Mayle)
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