C. I. 200 2700206
200-100-7/71-B83972
TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS: -
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Dear John,
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RESTRICTED
By express airmail
(31) RER
COMMERCE & INDUSTRY DEPARTMENT,
FIRE BRIGARE. BUILDING.
HONG KÔNG
Tong
I suggest that 70048 MAY 1777
Govenor chike
MFA (1 dnice draft
11 May 1977.
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Thank you for your telegram No. 287 of 19 April responding so
promptly to my telegrams No. 387 and 388 on my Legco speech. The speech was given the usual coverage in the press and did not generate much excitement, but then I had avoided specific reference to the UK's position.
You said in your telegram that I would not expect you to agree with all I said. I hope, however, that you will tell me where you disagree. I say this because I drafted this speech very carefully, sticking, I thought, to facts and avoiding opinions. Even where I
had a softened the language by 'it seems to us and such like phrases I was
Hrinks, d I had
_with
Mud.
dealing with facts, e.g. the MFA itself is not responsible for what happened to EEC textile industries in 1974 and 1975 nor even 1976, and global quotas would involve fundamental changes to the basic concepts of the MFA. So I honestly cannot see but perhaps I'm too close to the trees -/what you would disagree.
I was glad to note that you had been in touch with the DOI Drun
about my letter to Sir Peter Carey. That letter was written more than a month ago (7 April to be exact) but I have not had any response yet. bis I hope this means that we have succeeded in inspiring some second
thoughts.
The difficulty of reconciling Carey's statements here and Mr. Meacher's speech is becoming more urgent than it has been so far. Although my speech did not stir things up here, recent press reports coming out of Brussels about the Secretary of State's remarks following the Council of Ministers meeting on 3 May, and the EEC's proposal to seek an "improved interpretation" of the MFA to provide for "global" quotas, are causing widespread concern in the press as well as in the trade and industry. A few days ago, the South China Morning Post carried a big story headlined "Exporters call for Whitehall assurance" in which the Chairman of the Association's textile sub-committee, referring to Mr. Meacher's House of Commons speech in February and Sir Peter Carey's public remarks during his visit here last year, was quoted as saying: "It does appear, on one hand, that we see a smiling face. But, on the other hand, you have somebody digging your grave" The Morning Post reported that the Association was repeating a request made in the Legislative Council by an unofficial member that Britain should give an assurance that it "would play no part in the EEC in .
/matters
J.A.B. Stewart, Esq., OBE,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street,
London SW1A 2AH,
England.
WART
P5
(4
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