1161
CONFIDENTIAL
RECEIVED IN ARCHES No. 63
- 5 DEC1967
HWB 6/18
1 December, 1967
67
(62-Part B:)
Britain and E.E.C. Consultations with
Hong Kong
As you know I returned here from America just as devaluation was announced. The circumstances surrounding this operation produced an amount of bitterness in Hong Kong against Britain. This seems to persist not least in the breast of Cowperthwaite the Financial Secretary who apparently feels he was unjustly held up to obloquy here, when the real culprits for Hong Kong's seesaw attitude to devaluation are those in the U.K. who refused to discuss the matter with him earlier this year, or failed to give him adequate notice of U.K. devaluation. This personal feeling may be a factor in any future U../li.K. negotiations on E.E.C.
2. Philip Haddon-Cave has been out of his way to stress to me that the Secretarist is satisfied with the last round of talks, and consider that they have made their completely passive attitude clear to H..G. as outlined in paragraph 12
-Vant B) of the brief attached to Healey's letter 305/240/2 of
23 October to Mcqueen. I asked him why, if this was their main objective, Cowperthwaite had led the second delegation and not Haddon-Cave himself. He said this was purely due to Hong Kong's misunderstanding that somebody so senior as Sir A. Snelling was going to lead the U.K. team on the first occasion, when Haddon-Cave had felt embarrassed.
3. I am copying this letter to Christopher Audland and Carter in the Commonwealth Office.
(M.P.V. Hannam)
Principal Trade Commissioner
is
J. Gowers, sq., C.R.E.D.,
Board of Trade,
1 Victoria Street, S.W.1.
CONFIDENTIAL
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