TNAG-0123-FCO40-159-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1971 — Page 183

оо

8

WHITEHALL 5422

Your Ref:

Mw.s. Carler TOP SECRET

HK K4/1

We shall have to

act on this advice

Dear Jake,

94: 4/12

Long Term Study: Hong Kong

Copy No.1

CABINET OFFICE

of 3 copies

19

324

LONDON S.W.I

4th December 1968

I have discussed your letter of 29th November with Robin Hooper, who, as you

know, is now Chairman of the Defence Review Working Party, and can give you our

views on how the revised study might best be handled. It is clear to us, as you yourself say, that the paper will have to go to the Working Party again, and we see little prospect of getting away merely with circulation for clearance without a meeting even if it were right, or indeed sensible, to attempt this. It may also be that OPDO will have to take the paper as well before it goes, via the Ministerial

Committee on Hong Kong, to OPD. But we can look at this when we come to it.

I recognise that this means a number of hurdles at the end of a very long course,

but the result is likely to be more satisfactory if we do not miss any out.

As we

see it, the objective is for OPD to receive the official report, under cover of a note

from the Ministerial Committee, bringing out the essential issues and making recommen- dations, and we are most likely to achieve this easily if there has first been fairly

general agreement at official level among the major Departments concerned. In saying

this, I recognise that certain sections of the paper are more particularly the concern

of one Department rather than another, although at the same time this cannot be

allowed to inhibit comment by others who have an interest.

I suggest therefore that, as soon as you have cleared paragraphs 17-19 and the

related conclusion with the Ministry of Defence, the new draft should be circulated to

the Working Party. It would, I think, help all concerned, including yourselves, if

the draft could have a cover note by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office briefly

giving the back history, drawing attention to the main changes that have been made

since the last draft and making whatever points seem to you desirable about the

difficulty that there would be in changing any particular pieces, e.g. because they do

J.0. Moreton, Esq., C.M.G., M.G.,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

/have