TNAG-0527-FCO40-622-Visit-of-James-Callaghan--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-1975 — Page 39

CONFIDENTIAL

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SECRETARY OF STATE'S PROPOSED VISITS TO JAPAN, CHINA AND INDIA

1.

In the course of my recent tour of East Asia the question of the Secretary of State's forthcoming tour arose in Tokyo, Peking and in Hong Kong. I very much welcome the development which I observed in the telegrams which suggests that India will not be lumped in with China and Japan. Indeed the Private Secretary told me on 9 June that a visit separately to India in February 1976 is in the Secretary of State's mind. I welcome this. My fear was that as we got nearer the time for the proposed visit it would become apparent that the Secretary of State could not spare as long as had been originally hoped for the trip, and that he might end up by spending insufficient time in the various places for the journey to be really worth while.

2. There is another problem which I do not think I had fully hoisted in previously which is that according to Sir M MacLehose it is not the intention of the Secretary of State to visit Hong Kong. I think this would be a most unfortunate omission. Until now whenever Ministers have visited China they have always gone in or out through Hong Kong thus enabling them to re-assure leaders in Hong Kong and public opinion there generally that no deals are being made with the Chinese at the expense of the Colony. I think this remains a most important consideration and I would certainly deplore it if it were the intention of the Secretary of State to do China and not Hong Kong. I myself had always assumed that he was going to Hong Kong, but clearly this is not the impression which the Governor gained from his most recent talk with the Secretary of State.

3. In sum I would hope that the Secretary of State could visit China first and emerge from China at Hong Kong and thence visit Japan on his way home. All of this could be accomplished without crossing India by using either the Trans-Siberian or Polar routes to Japan.

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9 June 1975

CONFIDENTIAL

K M Wilford