URGENT
CONFIDENTIAL
Mrs Drummond (Protocol and Conference Department CH 302)
1. I mentioned to you over the telephone this morning the arrival of two telegrams from Hong Kong relating to the typhoon (Typhoon "Rose") which struck Hong Kong yesterday. Copies of the two telegrams in question are attached.
2. You will see that in one of the telegrams
Mr Roun thwaite, who is in charge of the United Kingdom Senior Trade Commissioner's office in Hong Kong in the absence of Mr Blackwell on leave, has recommended that a message of sympathy be sent to Hong Kong by the appropriate authority in this country. He goes on to suggest that a message from Princess Anne would be appreciated by Hong Kong.
3. According to Diplomatic Service Procedure, a message of smypathy from The Queen is sent only in the case of disasters of exceptional magnitude. Your preliminary reaction was to say over the telephone that unless the reported capsizing of the ferry boat with a loss of over 60 lives was confirmed, you did not think that the disaster was such as to merit a message from the queen. We are sending an immediate telegram to Mr Roun thwaite asking him whether he can now confirm that the ferry boat did in fact capsize with the reported lose of life. It will however be a few hours before we receive his reply and we would not wish to hold up action in the meantime. I will however telephone you as soon as his reply is received.
4. The recommendation of this department is that a message of sympathy should be sent from the Queen: but that if the circumstances are such that a message from Her Majesty would not be justified, then we recommend a message from Princess Anne (who is due to visit Hong Kong in September/October. We do not of course know how the Palace would look upon this idea.
5. I should be grateful if early action could be taken to make the necessary approach to the Palace.
A W Gaminara
Hong Kong Department
17 August 1971
Bearing in mind (1) that Hong
Kong
is
Q
fully dependent tudtong good political fromans for such a mensaje Princess Anne is going to kong Kong in Sepñers.
(2) that there are (3) that
CONFIDENTIAL
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.