TNAG-0242-FCO40-278-Conduct-of-Hong-Kong-commercial-relations-1970 — Page 132

Mr. Wilford

Sir L. Monson

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Conduct of Hong Kong's Commercial Relations

You will recall Sir Leslie Monson's letter of 14 January to Flag B Mr. Hughes (Board of Trade) on the draft statement that emerged from

our discussions with the Governor of Hong Kong. In that letter we dealt with the statement's application to international organisations

and in particular with the views expressed by Sir E. Melville on this

point.

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2. Our original position, as set out in the letter, veered towards

the view that international organisations should be excluded from the

scope of the statement. The replies from Mr. Hughes and Mr. Carey are somewhat non-committal on this point, although I read Mr. Hughes'

letter as favouring the amendment of the statement- so that it can be applied to international organisations; Mr. Carey, agreeing with Mr. Hughes' proposed amendments, appears to have placed a similar interpretation on Mr. Hughes' letter.

3. On further full reflection I agree that the statement should be made applicable to international organisations. The Governor would, I feel sure, wish the "general principles" enunciated in paragraphs 5, 6 and 8-10 to apply to the conduct of relations in the multilateral as

well as bilateral field, and from a narrow FCO point of view I can see

advantage for us in the acceptance of these principles by other departments as applying to all international trade issues in whatever forum they are being handled.

4. But there are difficulties and I do not consider that the

suggestions for amendment made so far satisfactorily deal with them Paragraph 3 is clearly drafted with bilateral relations only in mind. It seems to me that paragraph 4, if applied to international organisa- tions, would go further than Sir E. Melville (and I suspect some other heads of delegations, e.g., UK delegation to EEC) would accept as

desirable in opening the way for Hong Kong to represent its interests

directly and through its own officers. If we are to meet Sir E. Melville's strong doubts on this score and also his view that there

should

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