CONFIDENTIAL
The members of the Drug Abuse and Control Select Committee were briefed by the Police Narcotics Bureau and by the Customs and Excise Service on the changing patterns of drug smuggling from the Golden Triangle into Hong Kong via Thailand and occasionally Malaysia, as well on as the emergence of opium smuggling from Pakistan. They were assured of the importance we attach to close cooperation with the D.E.A., both here, regionally (especially with their Regional District 16 in Bangkok) and internationally, which had clearly proved to be to our mutual advantage. The visitors raised no controversial points and all of us got the impression that they were happy with the way our law enforcement and overall anti-narcotics efforts are going, and with the frank and friendly relationship which exist between their officials and ourselves.
We attach great importance to sustaining and enhancing the understanding and mutual assistance we have developed with the Americans over the past few years on overall anti-narcotics strategies in both the supply and demand reduction fields. The Congressional visit was important to us in this context, and we therefore gave our visitors special treatment, which they seemed to appreciate. Arrangements were made by the Customs Service to clear them quickly through Kai Tak Airport (from Bangkok) and Lowu from China); in addition, the Police gave a lunch to members of the Select Committee group, and the Acting Governor, Sir Denys Roberts, also entertained all the Congressmen, four of their aides and the U.S. Consul-General to a very relaxed and convivial lunch which gave Lester Wolff a chance to air his views to all our policy makers in the narcotics area. Wolff was in a most genial mood, and from his post lunch speech we got the impression that he and his colleagues were pleased with their visit; he was obviously basking in the after-glow of his visit to China, to which he devoted the whole of his press-conference on the day of his departure from Hong Kong, 15th July.
In short, I consider this to have been a very.... successful visit; everybody's egos, theirs and ours, appear to have been satisfactorily massaged.
A list of Congressmen and their aides who made up
the two parties is attached.
Encl.
Sincerely Youa,
Peter Lee
(E.I. Lee)
Commissioner for Narcotics
1. CONFIDENTIAL
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