's!
EQARD OF TRADE,
1 Victoria Street,
London, S.W.1.
11th December
1969.
Thank you for your letter of Decomber 3 about Hong Kong representation in Genova.
2. Your suggestions for additional paragraphs to the guidance paper on "Hong Kong'o External Commercial Relatione" were timely. I gather that exchanges are still going on with the Governor of Hong Kong about the possibility of amendments to the document sent to you by Carter. Whether it will be possible to have your suggestions adopted is uncertain but at least they can be taken into account before any thing final is decided.
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3. The general question of Hong Kong's discretion to speak' at international meetings in her own interests (even where these do not coincide with our own views) has already been considered. There was an exchange of telegrams with the Governor of Hong Kong in September about this, copies of which were not unfortunately sent to you at the time but which I now enclose. As Hong Kong is a separate signatory or the Cotton Textiles Arrangement there is a better case for allowing Hong Kong to speak for herself at the Cotton Textiles Committee than in other international fora. But even thero, and even where there are genuine differences of view, we doubt if it is really in Hong Kong's interests for her to take any public line which might embarrass the U.K. and we would hope and expect that concultation on the spot could minimise the risk that this might happen.
4. On the point you mentioned at the beginning of your letter (the one dealt with in para.7 of the enclosure to my minute or November 27 to Roderick Abbott) I now hope that serious difficulty will not arise. Our recent discussions with Wellenstein and Ernst made it clear that the roll-in of restraints on cotton and non-cotto would be unacceptable to the E.E.C.; and Roderick Abbott'a lctter ti me of the 24th of November shows that it would be equally unaccepta to the Japanese. The main reason why the Hong Kongera would like any further discussion of restraints on non-cotton textiles to take place in the G.A.T.T. Cotton Textiles Committee is to facilitate the possibility of roll-in should restraints on non-cotton textiles ever receive qualified sanction by the G.A.T.T. As I now seo it, no major country would be in sympathy with the roll-in idea - certainly we would not and we would hope, after discussion with David Jórdan and Derek Jones, to persuade them that there would be no advantage in expressing their views publicly at the forthcoming meeting.
5.
It is also possible that we might not see eye to eye with Hong Kong over Article 2 of the C.T.A., but there again we would hop to straighten out any differences of views in discussion with you E and our Hong Kong colleagues.
His Excellency Sir Eugene Melville, (R. Goldsmith).
K.C.M.G..
United Kingdom Mission, 37-39 rue de Vermont,
Geneva.
LAST
REF
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c.c. Mr. Whitehead (F.C.0.)
Hr. Stewart (F.C.O. Kr. Dunnott (CRE.1) CONFIDENTIAL
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