TNAG-0416-FCO40-462-Review-of-narcotics-problem-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 64

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Mr Stuart HKIOD

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HKIOD have sent us the attached draft submission and a draft telegram to Bangkok. These deal mainly with the attachment of two Hong Kong Narcotics Officers, one to the Embassy in Bangkok, the other to our Consulate in Chiengmai.

2. The draft telegram is to let Hi Ambassador (and Hong Kong) know that we agreed the appointments and to ask Anoassador to in touch with Hong Kong about the type of man he requires for the job.

3. Ir Smith, Acting Consul in Chiengmai, has commented in detail upon the possible functions of "our man" in Chiengmai. Mr Smith's suggestions are valuable but I feel we should be wary of placing too much emphasis on them at this stage. HM Ambassador has not yet commented in detail upon them but will no doubt do so off his own bat when he gets the go-ahead to approach the Thais about the appointments. In particular it wil be interesting to see whether HM Ambassador endorses Mr Smith's view that the Officer in Chiengmai should h ve some executive, interrogatory function.

4. I would suggest therefore that we slightly amend the third sentence of paragraph 3 of the draft sub- mission to read "Er Smith suggests that the most useful attribute for the Officer appointed would be to speak several dialects of Chinese with a view to improving our information on local Chinese involved in the opium trade. A man of this kind might be rather different from the sort of unannounced Liaison Officer whom the Ambassador seems to have in mind. I recommend that we ask the Ambassador to give his views on this and on the type of man he would like for the job, liaising directly with Hong Kong.

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5. And The second and third sentence of the draft tele- gram to read "We note that Acting Consul, Chiengmai, (Smith's letter of 17 April to Sharland) thinks that the man seconded to Chiengmai would only be really useful if he had a specific job to do (perhaps other than pure liaison work), and that mastery of several Chinese dialects would be a very useful attribute. Perhaps you would advise Hong Kong on the sort of persons who would be acceptable to you and to the Thais and on the type of work they could most usefully do."

MR Michael

A R Michael

5 June 1973

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