SECRET
the Committe t
appe
& Tran
(or me of hollister staff
taking Kok with
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adwriter (ak Hug
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acetic anhydride possibility. For the rest, including
proposed discussions with the Americans, I think the
the first thing is to get clear our plans for parti-
cipation in the ad hoc committee. As you will see,
ed
we have been wondering whether it would be in your
get [Rolph
interest and ours to try to get Rolph or one of his
staff included-in-the-committee as an adviser to Train.
briet Rolph's paper merely envisages that you should speak
Soulles
h
strongly to the committee, when it visits Hong Kong.
might concewally
We
But presumably there can be advantage in your being
more directly associated with the whole work of the
committee, including the drawing up of the report.
were not wholly certain, however, either whether you
would want this or whether it would be acceptable to
the other members of the ad hoc committee. Clearly
if participation by a Hong Kong officer reduced our
own effectiveness as unbiased outsiders, there could
be arguments for the Hong Kong Government keeping in
the background and advising us less obtrusively in
the preliminary stages. In the long run the important
thing is that the sub-commission, if it is set up,
should have the right members and the right programme.
On the other hand, in the last analysis, our claim to
participate in South East Asian discussions does rest
on our possession of Hong Kong, although we do not
stress this for obvious Chinese reasons. Moreover,
given that your people have the expertise, there might
be positive advantage to the ad hoc committee in
making it constantly available in the background.
Perhaps you could let us know whether you would
yourself attach importance to the participation of
(14941) Dd.897300 250m 9/72 G.W.B.Ltd. Gp.863
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
/Rolph
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