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maintain contact with Mr. Echts with a view to persuading the team to make a diversionary visit to Hong Kong, if necessary with some hospitality and financial help from Government.
The Federal Republic of Germany
57. The German press scene is the largest and the most confused, but the most important to Hong Kong, of all the countries visited. It is the area in continental Europe in which Hong Kong has made the most sustained efforts over the past decade to influence the media. Whether this has contributed in any way to the fact that Germany is our biggest customer must be a matter for speculation but I believe it must have been a contributory factor. We should not in any way relax our efforts but should rather intensify them. Germany should therefore continue to be our major target area for our information and public relations effort within the Economic Community.
58. There are approximately 10,000 publications of all kinds published within the Federal Republic -including 1100 daily news- paper and 3000 technical papers, bulletins and magazines. The T.D.C. have done an excellent job of producing a manageable and influential press list, both for this area and the rest of Europe, in which they have restricted the total distribution list for their European press service to under 500 publications. The list ties in well with Embassy selections and should form the basis of a co- ordinated distribution list for any increased commercial public relations and information effort by Hong Kong in Europe. It is too bulky to attach as an appendix to this report but copies can be obtained from the T.D.C. or from the office of the writer of this report. It needs some limited strengthening in the field of political and economic publications; and selected radio and television contacts and British Embassy information outlets should be added once we have more staff on the ground to maintain personal contact within these spheres.
59. There are approximately 500 press correspondents in Bonn but they are mostly lobby correspondents dealing with the Federal Government on political matters. Trade, commercial and economic correspondents are found principally in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Stuttgart and the prosent T.D.C. European head office is well situated in Frankfurt. I do not see any value in establishing an information centre in Bonn but better liaison should be established between the two centres. This could be achieved by the attachment, of a government information officer to the T.D. C. office with responsibility for helping to maintain a bridge between trade and political informa- tion, much of the latter by personal contact and judicious conversation with selected editors.
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60. The information arm of the British Embassy in Bonn works in this manner and most effectively. But by comparison theirs is a vast organisation. The Counsellor (Information) who has a political information role to play works through six information secretaries in six consular offices dispersed throughout the Federal Republic.
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