41A
2600078
20,000-10/68-B32825
REF. 12/bit
SECRET
Dear Bum
COLONIAL SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
N. Game 10th May, 1968
318 To reinter
to ime
The representative of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) for East Africa and the Far East, Dr. Walter Svoboda, has approached the Hong Kong Government with a view to setting up his headquarters here. Other possible sites are Osaka and Manila, but Dr. Svoboda, who was Austrian Consul-General here until 1965, has strong personal preferences for Hong Kong. He says in addition that it is the most centrally placed location, and has other obvious advantages as a home of efficient, but not too highly developed or specialised, industry with a good deal of technical expertise available.
2.
Dr. Svoboda claims to have received encourage- ment from Chinese Communist contacts in Hong Kong. He seems to have discussed the matter with a fairly senior representative of the N.C.N.A. as well as with FAI Yi-min of Ta Kung Pao; and reports that they indicated that China would have no objections to the presence of this U.N. organisation here. This is, of course, surprising in view of the Chinese attitude to the United Nations, but
we have information that it is accurate. It is unclear what the Communist motives in welcoming UNIDO could be, but it is likely that they are political rather than technical and commercial.
3.
Our own views are mixed. From the economic point of view, there could be some technical and prestige value to the Colony in the UNIDO having its Far Eastern Headquarters here. But these may be outweighed by potential political drawbacks. Dr. Svoboda himself has, in addition to a Yugoslav wife, unusually intimate contacts with high-level Chinese communists here, and a general reputation for being left of centre. There is a danger that his staff (although it would not number more than three or four outsiders in all) would include representatives of East European communist countries; you know, we have hitherto strenuously resisted such people establishing themselves here. Alternatively, his organisation could fairly easily be penetrated by Chinese
as
1345
W.S. Carter Esq., C.V.O.,
Commonwealth Office,
Downing Street,
LONDON S.W.1.
THIS IS A COPY
SECRE
THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN RETAINED
IN THE DEPARTMENT UNDER SECTION
3 (4) OF THE PUBLIC RECORDS ACT 1958
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