TNAG-0332-FCO40-368-Visits-of-Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Af-1972 — Page 147

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Sir Alec Douglas-Home said that he was very glad to be in Hong Kong and to have the chance to appreciate Hong Kong's point of view. it was true that the Commonwealth had become a collection of individual countries, some of them more interested in their particular regions than in their connection with the United Kingdom. Nevertheless it was a useful platform through which they could exchange views across the barriers of

race, etc.

3. Hong Kong, Sir Alec said, understandfall the reasons why she must remain a colony. Britain, for her part, was aware of the need to show concern. He would like to set this against the general picture of the world power situation as he saw it. Sir Alec then spoke of the relatively stable position in Europe as between the Soviet Union and the Western allies, the growing Soviet Navy and Soviet apprehension about Chinese policy. Britain was about to enter the European Common Market. He believed that the political reasons for combining with the EEC were even stronger than the economic ones.

4. On the particular questions raised by Sir Albert, Sir Alec said that he would certainly raise the matter of visas with the Japanese Government: there were some differences between the position of Japan and the United Kingdom over visas for Hong Kong passport holders

and he would try to exploit this. On civil aviation, he would look at the question

again. It might be that our rules for the provision of aid were somewhat rigid. On

textiles, Sir Alec said that he was sorry that differences had arisen, but he hoped that

they would be got out of the way quickly, before important talks on the alignment of UK

and EEC trade practices were started.

5. Sir Kenneth Fung said that the visa question was important since it militated

against one of their main aims which was to give the people of Hong Kong a sense of

belonging. Germany was also difficult as well as Japan. Sir Y. Kan supported this.

Mr. Royle had told him that he would take the matter up with the Germans after the signature of the Treaty of Accession.. For the airport, what was needed was assistance

in improving the navigational aids.

6. Mr. Browne and Mr. Saunders raised the matter of air traffic rights.

It would be

a great help to Hong Kong to have a route to London via Moscow and a route to Scandinavia

with whom they did much business. Sir Douglas Clague said that SAS were prepared to

provide this service, but were excluded. In general discussion the point was made that

if it was necessary to exclude SAS, BOAC should at least offer an equivalent service, which

they did not do at the moment. Sir Alec Douglas-Home said that he would look at this

question. It would be difficult. It had taken him two years to obtain rights for XLII.

On the matter of visas, Germany was no doubt sensitive because of the influx of foreign

labour.

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