TNAG-0137-FCO40-173-Supply-of-political-and-economic-information-to-Hong-Kong-to-1969 — Page 17

We hope that you will not find this

additional chore too burdensome for your staff,

since we do not envisage that it will amount

to much more than mailing an extra copy of

suitable items of correspondence.

In the

rare event that information of "Secret" classi-

fication might concern Hong Kong's general

interests, we would be grateful if you would

consider specially to what extent and in what

form it might be passed on to the Political Adviser, indicating to him any express caveats

about its use or dissemination.

You may wonder whether this could be the

thin end of the wedge so far as dependent

territories are concerned and whether one such

request as this will be followed by others.

I think I can say with every certainty that

Hong Kong is sui generis among our remaining

dependent territories and that we see none of

the others ever approaching, much less matching,

its position of twenty fourth or twenty fifth

in the league table of the world's leading

trading countries.

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