TNAG-0308-FCO40-344-Contributions-of-Hong-Kong-for-costs-of-maintaining-military-1971 — Page 26

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SECRET

Mr Barrington

1. I mentioned the attached correspondence to you on the telephone.

2. On the basis of the information provided in Mr Hurd's letter to you of 20 April we should like to include the following paragraph in the draft of a message which we propose should be sent by the Secretary of State to the Unofficial Members of the Hong Kong Executive Council:

3.

"It is true that when Mr Heath, as Leader of the Opposition, visited Hong Kong and the Far East during January 1970, he mentioned the figure of £300 million in relation to Britain's earnings of foreign exchange from Malaysia and Singapore. Mr Heath was speaking in the context of general defence policy east of Suez and the figure of £300 million did not relate to Hong Kong."

The draft message will, of course, be the subject of a submission when it is ready. Meanwhile, perhaps you would be good enough to obtain clearance from the Prime Minister's Office for the inclusion of the passage quoted above in the draft of the message which we shall be recommending that the Secretary of State should send to Hong Kong.

Demméra

A W Gaminara

Hong Kong Department

29 April 1971

Me Gamñava

I have cleared the insert with No10.

Please include it in the

message.

SECRET