TNAG-0438-FCO40-503-Visits-of-UK-Members-of-Parliament--to-Hong-Kong-including-v-1974 — Page 137

SUIL Ac 17 10324 de la at kabad

AND ALIOURAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1

D

Sir Murray MacLehose KCMG MBE

HONG KONG

Telephone 01-

Your reference

Our reference

| RECEIVED

REGISTRY Ho.

- 8 JANISHA

Date

2 January 1973

14K/3/5588/2

VISITS BY MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT TO HONG KONG

1.

LAST

Rer.

NEXT

REF.

As you know, Mr Royle had a successful meeting in November with members of the Hong Kong Parliamentary Group.

This was attended by a lively and well-informed selection of MPs of all parties. Largely because of Hong Kong's care in selecting and looking after visitors from Parliament, there is now a lot of understanding and sympathy in Parliament for Hong Kong, despite the automatic anti- colonialist assumptions of many Members.

2.

Nevertheless Mr Royle wondered whether you were not getting too swamped by visits from MPs, particularly short term visitors, without any great interest in Hong Kong. The Department therefore prepared a list of all such visitors, which showed that, as far as our records went, you had had 58 visitors from the House of Commons or the House of Lords since the beginning of 1972 plus 12 Ministerial visits. Of these 16 were recorded as having been on official visits at your invitation.

3.

Exact numbers do not matter much, but they do illustrate a constant and increasing flow. There is probably little that could be done to discourage this, even if you thought it was getting out of hand. But it would be helpful to us to know whether you consider you have the resources to deal with the present and prospective flow of MP visitors, whether you regard their visits as useful without qualification, or whether you would ideally like to cut down on some categories, and if so which.

cc (blind)

Mr Youde

PS/Mr. Royle

A C Stuart

Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.

CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL

ра

Prk

3/1..