SECRET & PERSONAL
2.
careful to avoid any action that might undermine Hong Kong's prosperity. I am sure that this is so but I wonder if I might ask you to elaborate a little on this point. There is a statement on the economic advantage of Hong Kong to the UK in paragraph 5 of the Planning Paper but it is not a complete statement uncertainty about the value of invisible earnings is the main difficulty in amiving at a balance sheet and it is now a little out of date. It so happens that Lord Goronwy-Roberts has recently asked, in a quite different context, for information about the economic advantage to the UK of maintaining the present constitutional position in Hong Kong. We have a certain amount of information, mainly about the value of trade with and investment in Hong Kong, but it would be helpful if we could provide the Minister of State with a Treasury assessment of the financial implications for the UK of the connection with Hong Kong.
5.
I agree that we need to continue to keep in touch with one another. [It might be useful if you and I (or Stewart and Walker) met some time for a financial and economic tour d'horizon on Hong Kong affairs.] So far as we are concerned, I think that the information that Stewart provided with his letter to Walker and the enclosures to my letter of 15 February to Derek Mitchell have served to bring you up to date.
SECRET & PERSONAL
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