TNAG-0461-FCO40-526-Exchange-of-newsletters-between-Foreign-and-Commonwealth-Off-1974 — Page 19

Our reference: 61/1 Your reference:

D N Brinson Esq

Head of GI PD

#конод

BRITISH TRADE COMMISSION IN HONG KONG 7th Floor, Shell House, Queen's Road, Central, HONG KONG Mail Address: P.O. Box No. 528, Hong Kong Cable Address: "Uktrade Hongkong"

M. Hanna

Telephone- 230176

Bionosed with

p're discusso.r.

Foreign & Commonwealth Office

1 Victoria Street

London SW1

Dear Bunnison,

Thur Stwork.

29 August 1972...

We must revive be Monthly news letters

to BTC

Reg

Juninh

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY No.56

- 3SEP 1974

PBA10B93/1

I refer to your circular letter to Heads of Post of 11 June, and enclose, with apologies for it being late, our Annual Information Policy Report.

Kevi

As I arrived in Hong Kong only a few weeks ago and am still heavily engaged in the usual round of courtesy calls and acquainting myself with a new post, I am not in a position to comment on the report in detail, and can only offer one or two obser- vations in the light of my impressions to date.

Britain is well reported on in the press here. Moreover, the reporting is reason- ably objective and responsible, much of it being from the Economist and Financial Times, and certainly not "sensational" in a journalistic sense. The problem is that the quite proper preoccupation in the British press with Britain's economic prob- lems is faithfully reflected here, but against the background of Hong Kong rather than Britain itself. The result is an impression, at least in some quarters, that Britain is a depressed, run down country. For instance one writer in a Chinese language newspaper who had just visited Britain recently, expressed surprise at the prosperity and standards of technology, commenting that British Rail's Inter-City service was really very much better than the local single line railway which runs between Kowloon and the Chinese border. Clearly he had expected otherwise!

What are we to do about this? I see no point in trying to convince a community as sophisticated in business matters as Hong Kong that the Economist and Financial Times are sadly mis-informed. We can only take comfort from the fact that other countries have their problems too, that these are fairly widely reported, and that it is becoming obvious that Hong Kong's exports are affected not only by conditions in Britain, but its other principal markets too. In these circumstances, I believe all we can do is to give as much publicity as we can to the more cheerful stories, the successes and new technological developments. This, the Information Section is doing, and, as you will see from Coombe's report, with increasing suc-

cess.

I should perhaps also mention that I am not convinced that this Commission can "speak for Britain" in a broad sense and, more particularly, on those sensitive matters which are constitutionally for the Hong Kong Government to deal with. can, however, work together with the Hong Kong Government Department of Information on some of the more difficult and sensitive economic issues to try to see the British case is given some publicity.

2/5

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Every effort is made to ensure that the information given herein is accurate, but no legal responsibility is accepted for any errors or omis sions in that information and no responsibility is accepted in regard to the standing of any firms, companies, or individuals mentioned.