whether we like it or not we are stuck with the 18th
or 19th August as the date for these negotiations.
4. Nevertheless the Board of Trade and we ourselves
obvinily clearly continue to be interested in the outcome of these negotiations.
I Luggsst
In the circumstances, therefore,
we must insist that any conclusion reached by Hong
Kong is ad referendum and I have drafted a telegram te
long-Kong accordingly. I am copying the draft to
the Board of Trade and asking for their urgent comments as well as your own. If we are to get into the act at all and we clearly must - we ought to send something off promptly. It is not enough, I would say, to be "notified in due course".
-
5. I have referred in the draft telegram to the paper which Mr. Hughes sent to Jordan under his letter of 31 July. We have only just received a copy of
this paper in the department. But I know that Mr. Carter
was somewhat dismayed both to learn that this paper
had gone direct to Jordan without our having the opportunity in this Office to contribute, and also to see that the aper was rather more limited in scope than we had expected, In case you have not yourself now seen the copy which Mr. Hughes sent to Sir Arthur Snelling I enclose one. You will find that it is principally concerned with speculation about the course which the United States is likely to take towards the restraint of textile imports. We had rather hoped that the paper would bring to a head the issues between Hong Kong and ourselves bearing on the making of voluntary restraint arrangements between Hong Kong and her trading partners. The course which the United States eventually decides to adopt to restrain textile imports may well be the most decisive factor, but although it is clear enough from the Board of Trade paper that their dislike of voluntary restraint arrangements persists, we are left with Hong Kong's problem what to do in circumstances where it seems to be forced upon her to conclude such arrangements in her own trading interest.
In fact.
in this Canadian issue we find ourselves approaching
yet another bilateral occasion where this same difference of viewpoint is going to make itself felt.
N.. / I appreciate
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