RESTRICTED
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London S.W.1
14 February 1972
HE Sir Murray MacLehose, KCMG, MBE,
Government House
HONG KONG
My dear Murray
1.
LAST
NEW
LES,
Thank you for your letter of 26 January about
two matters connected with Michael Wright's office in Pall Mall.
2.
We have confirmed that the questions of an official car and flag havo boon satisfactorily settled on the basis mentioned in your paragraph 2.
3.
As regards the title of his post we can see no reason why in present circumstances Michael should not be called "Hong Kong Commissioner" as you suggest. Carter's letter of 4 October 1968 to David Trench, to which you refer, was written little more than a year after the sacking of our Mission in Peking and less than a year after the end of the disturbances in Hong Kong. Our relations with China were delicate in the extreme and both we and David were, I am assured, at the time particularly anxious to avoid offending Chinese susceptibilities in any way. I om also assured that this was the reason behind the phraseology of Carter's explanation why we decided at that time against opting for the title of "Commissioner". However, in the present improved atmosphere of our relations with China we, feel that any risk in this context is now minimal and is one which we can reasonably take.
4.
We should be grateful to learn how you intend to introduce the change. The adoption of the present title, in August 1969, was heralded by simultaneous press releases here and in Hong Kong (see FCO Tel No. 540 of 15 August 1969) but on that occasion the question of the title of the post was only one of a number of matters involved in the reorganisation of the Hong Kong Government Office here, which was taking place
Would at the time and to which publicity needed to be given. you propose to make any announcement on the present occasion, or would you simply introduce the change by administrative process? We should prefer it if you could adopt the latter course, but if you feel that publicity cannot be avoided
/then
RESTRICTED
pa
PRIL
1612
ان المال
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