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is also the point made in Higham's Personal and Confidential letter to you of 18 November, 1964 that such a visit would have to be announced months in advance, that difficulties between the U.K. and China can always arise on any subject and that from the time of the announcement until the visit had taken place we would be open to pressure by the Chinese; and, once a visit had been announced, it could not be cancelled on account of Chinese pressure without major loss of face.
We entirely agree with you that a visit by the Queen would be tremendously welcome and do much to improve the feelings of the people of Hong Kong towards Britain. I know that this decision will be a disappointment to you, but I would like you to know that both we and the Foreign Office considered the whole matter afresh in the light of your letter. You may like to know that Donald Hopson himself, whom of course the Foreign Office consulted, does not rate the risks of a visit by the Queen so high as did his predecessor in 1964. Nevertheless
the considered advice of the Foreign Office, with which we have all felt bound to agree, is that the basic difficulty still
remains.
Incidentally you may like to know that if the Queen does go to South East Asia it looks as if her visit would be in
late January or early February, so this would not fit in with the dates for the Plover Cove scheme anyway.
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