Reference..
6
CONFIDENTIAL
EXTRACT FROM MINUTES OF MEETING OF THE MINISTERIAL
COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG HELD ON 22ND SEPTEMBER 1967
(K(67) 2nd Meeting)
Assistance to Hong Kong
(f) We had not so far felt able to accede to Hong
Kong request that our oversea posts should supply
information to the recently established Hong Kong
Export Credit Guarantee Corporation. Our refusal to do
so caused some resentment in Hong Kong, where it was
regarded as a failure on our part to treat Hong Kong
as a dependent territory for whose external affairs
we were concerned. The problem was in part that Hong
Kong was also a commercial competitor: this inevitably
limited the assistance that we could appropriately
supply, the more so since our own exporters supplied
information to our oversea posts on a basis of confidence
which would be undermined if they suspected that
information so supplied might be made available to Hong
Kong businessmen. Furthermore, the Diplomatic Service
was under heavy pressure to reduce costs by cutting
overseas staff, and it was therefore no time to require
posts to take on extra work. Nevertheless the request
should not be rejected out of hand but investigated in
detail in order to determine what were the Hong Kong
requirements and how far it was practicable and desirable
for us to meet them. In the first instance, the proposal
should be discussed further during the Minister of
State's forthcoming visit to Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL
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