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5. One piece of gossip that Chris Train has heard from Dr Schioller, a Dane with wide experience and good contacts in the international field, about Sten Martens departure which matches that in paragraph 5 of your letter of 11 June is that Martens is definitely going back to Sweden later this year and has been committed to do so since last November. Dr Schioller repeated the story about the Netherlands' Ambassador taking over the Directorship of the Fund while adding that Dr Braenden, the present Head of the UN Laboratory, is to take over the Division. This, may be just another in the series of rumours, but I pass it on to you for what it is worth.
6. I have now heard from Hong Kong that it has been agreed that they will definitely make their contribution of HK$100,000 to the Fund for 1975/76. They will make this payment direct and not through the UK. You will now have seen a copy of the telegram, repeated to you for information, which seeks Peking's views on some form of low-key publicity. The Ambassador may, however, tell Martens that this contribution is on its way.
7. Tom Smith from the American Embassy here rang Chris Train and then me last Friday to say that he had heard, in a somewhat garbled telegram it seemed, from the State Department that the Embassy in Washington had told them that the UK would not be contributing to UNFDAC any more nor was it going to make a contribution to the contingency fund to be set up to compensate Turkish poppy farmers for any losses they might make by switching to poppy straw. The Embassy may have mentioned something to the Americans on the Fund, but hardly in the above form. It might be that Betty Gough in Geneva had passed the rumour on. At any rate Chris Train explained our position to Smith which I reiterated strengthening what Chris said by adding that UNFDAC was not the only organisation which we had been unable to contribute to for various reasons this year. He appeared reasonably happy with our explanations although I wonder if we have heard the last of this from the Americans.
A TR Oaten
United Nations Department
Copied to:
C J Train Esq Home Office
JEC Macrae Esq
UK Mission to the UN New York
E C Glover Esq Washington
Mrs G S Wright SEED, FCO
Mr A L Wotton HKIOD, FCO
Miss S Darling NAD FCO
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