TNAG-0138-FCO40-174-Conduct-of-Hong-Kong-commercial-relations-1969 — Page 105

of commercial relations over which Hong Kong has for some time

exercised independent judgment is the cotton trade where her

participation in the LTA entitles the Colony to deal independently.

But it should be noted that even in this area the constitutional

position is clear and Hong Kong has relied on practical convenience

only to make good her claim.

Competence

It is significant that Hadden-Cave stated that the degree of

independence allowed Hong Kong had grown out of the size, pattern

and growing complexity of Hong Kong's trade.

It might, on the face

that the more complex

of it, have led to the opposite conclusion

the issues the greater the need for HMG to intervene because Hong

Kong cannot have the same extensive knowledge of international

affairs as is available in the Board of Trade and this office and

because the more complex the issues the more likely there are to be

the "wider international considerations" which Hadden-Cave admitted

could overrule the Hong Kong view. The present issue with America

is very much a case in point and it is arguable that since 1968

every non-cotton issue has been to a greater or lesser degree a

case of the same sort.

But what Hong Kong mean and the Governor will probably argue

is that the larger and more complex Hong Kong's own trade becomes

the less capable Whitehall staff become of understanding it and

being able to take competent decisions where intimate local know-

ledge in the Colony can. The Governor may well use this argument

incidentally in favour of certain points he wishes to make on the

staffing of the merged office.

It is certainly true that Hong Kong's trade is complex and that

/ FCO

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