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CONFIDENTIAL & ECLIPSE
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
Telephone 01-
T JB George Esq
Assistant Political Adviser
Colonial Secretariat HONG KONG
Your reference SCR4/1316/73
Our reference HKK 19/2
Date 21 February 1974
NARCOTICS: POSSIBLE APPROACH TO CHINA
1.
Thank you for your letter of 4 February. this American proposal surfaced in Hong Kong, put to us in London.
2.
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It seems odd that but has not yet been
We agree generally with your views. We discussed the matter in a preliminary way with Chris Train in the Home Office before he went to Geneva. We have also considered it within the Office.
We
They
do not think there would be much advantage, and might well be considerable disadvantage, in trying to bring the Chinese in. will presumably join the Commission if and when they want to, and anything we or the Americans were to say to try and persuade them seems unlikely to have much effect. The only reason for making the approach would be Anglo/American relations, and then only presentationally. We do not want to encourage the Chinese to meddle in Hong Kong affairs. Still less would we want to let it appear that the Americans were trying to get the Chinese to bring pressure on us in a Hong Kong context. The Chinese, if they joined, might well criticise us for (as they would see it) harbouring a narcotics trade in a part of China which we temporarily administer. But of course the Americans may be concerned to be seen by their public to be doing something active about their drugs problem, in so far as part of its source is Hong Kong.
3. We therefore think that if the Americans do raise the matter at the Geneva meeting, we will have to say we will consider it. We
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