Registry No.HKK 6/531/1
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
DRAFT LETTER
Secret.
Confidential,
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
In Confidence
Rui
ре
To:-
Miss J. Elliott,
Board of Trade.
(2 copies)
Type 1 + 7
From
Telephone No. & Ext.
Department
96
As may very well have been the case with yourself, pressure of other business has prevented my giving to Hong Kong telegram no. 301 about the forth- coming Swedish textile negotiations, the urgent attention which I think it requires. As you know, the Swedes are expected to arrive in Hong Kong on 20 April so that we have little time left in which to decide
what needs to be said to Hong Kong. Unfortunately unless you have received from Stockholm the additional statistical information for which we asked in our telegram no 227 (and about which I sent a chaser to Stockholm in telegram no. 111) we have not yet got all the information required on which to form a view.
2.
But even if we cannot decide what negotiating position we ought to recommend to Hong Kong when
parimlar discussing the relevant categories, there is in their telegram 301 a certain amount of other matter which we should try to dispose of immediately. One such matter is raised in paragraph 4 where Hong Kong say that it strikes them that "de Geer's statement to Goldsmith
could cover restraint requests on items now under E/A."
You will remember that we did not feel able to send Hong Kong the whole record of your discussions with de Geer in the Board of Trade on 20 March. But reading that note now it appears that Hong Kong's
may be kuswhed
question i decided in the second paragraph, where de Geer is recorded as saying that the Swedes did not propose to ask for export restraint on any non-cotton items apart from those already covered by restraint agreements, i.e. anoraks and jumpers of wool and mmf.
Can we interpret this to mean that the Swedes will be out of order if they seek to have actual restraint imposed on items now only subject to export authorisa- tions? If we can, should we not say so now to Hong
Kong in an appropriate telegram? Of course, their own telegram begins with the words "Pending Swedish
(118281) Dd. 391599 1,500м 2/69 Hw.
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