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CONFIDENTIAL
3 З страво
Mr. H.H. Stewart HKD mw whytemas Mr. Collings
8 May, 1969
In preparation for the visit of Mr. Stans, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and his party to Hong Kong on 17 May, it may be useful to you to have a rather fuller account than was contained in our telegram No. 954 to Washington of what took place during the talks with him in London. You may already have had something from
Sellers who sat in.
I now enclose just for the information of those of you who will be taking a major part in the discussions with Mr. Stans, and not please for any wider circulation extracts from the minutes of the two main meetings with him. At the first Mr. Stans and the President of the Board of Trade themselves did most of the talking. We arranged for Mr. Mulley, our Minister of State, to say a piece on Hong Kong (which is rather inadequately reported in these minutes: he spoke quite forcibly). At the second meeting Ministers were not present and I raised the Hong Kong problem as you will see.
You may also like to know that, when the Prime Minister received Mr. Stans, Mr. Wilson referred to the delicate political situation in Hong Kong and to the serious situation inspired in part at least by events
in Communist China which we had faced a year ago. Although the Hong Kong industry had done very well, Communist propaganda would be quick to make the most of any proposition which the U.S. Government might put forward affecting employment prospects in liong Kong. Stans re-emphasised his concern with imports from the Far East of synthetic and woollen goous, but concluded by saying that the United States would need to do more homework on the textile question, where special problems faced some segments of the industry.
His Excellency
Sir Savi Praunh, Q.C
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RECCIVED IN REGISTRY No. 51 12 MAY 1969
AKK 6/304/1
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