Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01-
in May The Wallon of
DFM
1619
Your reference
His Excellency
Sir Murray MacLehose GBE KCMG KCVO Governor and Commander-in-Chief HONG KONG
Our reference
Data
LAST
na
(3)
20 August 1976
Dear bearray,
MXY
REF.
1. Your letter of 14 August will have crossed with mine of 11 August but I think it is worth replying again because we have in the last week done quite a lot of thinking and planning about the modalities of communication about the Planning Paper.
2.
I have now drafted an outline scheme which I hope to have approved here and to send to you by the middle of September to give you advance notice of the way that we here are thinking. I hasten to add that approval here will be very much contingent on our discussions and your approval when I get to Hong Kong.
From your letter it is clear that our minds are working in the same way, particularly over the question of selectivity and a clear definition of our needs here in the Department. The main difficulty there is that someone must do the selection and my first reaction is for us to ask busy officials in Hong Kong to do this selection is rather an imposition. However, let us discuss it when I come.
3. I am sorry that my visit to Hong Kong will have to be only two weeks. However, as this is only the first of what, I expect, will become a regular six-monthly series of visits, perhaps this is not too serious. I must, of course, leave details of the programme to your own staff. However, if you would not mind too much, I would like to make one or two suggestions.
4. If possible, I would like to see as little concrete as possible. Obviously some visits to projects will be necessary and I am sure will be pressed by your staff. However, I have spent a day going over new and old public housing projects; I have visited the High Island dam; the Police Training School; the Chinese frontier and a lot of other official tourist type sights during the RCDS visit in 1974. My own feeling is that such a short time can be most usefully taken up with discussions with members of your Government.
5. I would, however, like to visit Macao if this is convenient. I have never been there and, to get some idea of their relations
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.