162
Sir A. Snelling
CONFIDENTIAL
162
Visit to Hong Kong
Meeting with Mr. Stans on 17 May 1969
I attach a copy of a note which I have prepared of the
meeting between Mr. Stans and his party and Hong Kong
officials led by Sir J. Cowperthwaite to discuss the US
proposals designed to achieve restraint in exports of non
cotton textiles to the US.
2. I felt I should record, for a more limited circulation,
something of the general atmosphere of the meeting and what
Mr. Stans said to me privately after the meeting.
3. I have indicated (and this is also brought out in
Hong Kong telegram No. 407) that Mr. Stans showed some
irritation under cross-examination by Sir J. Cowperthwaite.
Indeed at one stage Mr. Stans asked angrily "Are you playing
games with me, sir?".
There were, I think, two main reasons for this unfortunate
development at an early stage of the meeting. Mr. Stans
was obviously tired and perhaps a little edgy after having
visited ten countries previously and got receptions which
were broadly uniformly unfavourable to what he had to say.
He may perhaps have been guilty of making his initial
presentation in Hong Kong in a rather less comprehensive manner
than would have been the case at the outset of his mission.
/ On the
J
1
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.