TNAG-0331-FCO40-367-Visits-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Af-1972 — Page 115

Mr Tarlton

Reference.

with (25)

W

'NOT'

The work had been Tomitted in the

7

copy of the bisgan Iser to Mi Wother

He now agrees with the para.

ANG

SECRETARY OF STATE'S SPEECH IN HONG KONG

1.

Generally, the didactic and patronising tone of this draft would surely be unacceptable to a sophisticated and hard-headed audience: Hong Kong's textile industry, for example, has a far higher proportion of MIT graduates in management than Lancashire's. In particular, assertions of our liberal trading policies will not carry any conviction without the support of a burden of argument which would be intolerable for this occasion. A suggestion that they were in our interests might be acceptable. Thus in para 3 (third sentence) we might say "liberal trading policies generally serve our national interests best, and we will have every incen- tive to pursue those policies when we are members of the Community.." Your textile manufacturers, for example,

·

#!

2. I can only assume that para 4 contains a clerical error.

If not, and if it is really intended to argue that in the Common Market HK's interests are opposed to Britain's, the paragraph had better be omitted. Anyhow as it stands, it makes nonsense of para 3.

3.

Otiose

Para 9. Second sentence.. Quite obtuse and didactic. train of thought is much clearer when omitted.

4.

The

The numerous references to "this city" are gauche. The speech is given in the city of Victoria which is a small part of HK island. What about the city of Kowloon on the mainland (like most of HK's industry)? The normal reference used to be 'thi Colony' but we should check with HE whether this is still current.

AW

A Wooller

19 January 1972

Mr Laird

Please see Mr Wooller's comments above with

which I agree. I do not have Mr Wooller's exper- ience of serving in Hong Kong but if my Indian experience provides any parallel I would strongly endorse Mr Wooller's criticism of the tone of this draft speech. It seems to be too pompous and 'viceregal' in tone.

2.

The opening paragraph conveys this tone strongly and I wonder whether it is necessary. This simple constitutional lecture may be out of place before a well informed audience. A second point is that it tends to give the impression that Hong Kong is more dependent on decisions taken in London than is in fact the case. Hong Kong's capacity to obtain concessions under the general preferences scheme and to make special trading arrangements with different

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