Sir D Watson
Private Secretary
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35
BRITISH INTERESTS IN HONG KONG
1.
At his recent meeting with the Governor of Hong Kong
the Secretary of State said that he would put to Ministers
the need to consider our relations with Hong Kong as a whole.
A number of issues were about to be dealt with piecemeal, and
he wanted Ministers to bear in mind the overall effect as well.
2. We have considered the possibility of a paper for DOPC,
but have concluded that the problem is too diffuse to permit
an orderly presentation in a DOPC paper. The solution may be
a letter from the Secretary of State to those of his colleagues
most closely concerned. I accordingly submit a draft of such
based on adraft
a letter, prepared some time ago by Mr Wilford, and amended
L
to take into account the views expressed on the draft by
Sir Murray MacLehose, particularly his observation that we
should start off by making it clear that in general Hong Kong
is doing well.
3. The urgency of this letter is that the question of
nationality is due to be considered by Ministers on
19 September. This also poses the problem of classification.
The references to nationality in the draft are necessarily
elliptical in order to keep the grading to Confidential.
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