TNAG-0843-FCO40-1053-Visit-of-Lord-Carrington--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-1979 — Page 196

CONFIDENTIAL

4. It is

It is important that the Secretary of State should tak the opportunity to visit Hong Kong, and it would make sense to do so before he goes to China, in order to be able to debrief the Governor on his own visit, which is likely to take place in the

last week of March. Unless the Secretary of State flew out by Concorde to Singapore, in which case he would presumably wish to visit Singapore before going to Hong Kong, the best order might be for him to fly direct to Hong Kong and to take in ASEAN capitals

on his way out. I would then recommend that he visited Malaysia,

Singapore and Thailand for one full working day in each. The other two (Philippines and Indonesia) could be told with regret

that time is too limited but that the Secretary of State will seek

another early opportunity to visit them.

RECOMMENDATION

5. Subject to the Secretary of State's preliminary reactions I recommend that we now sound out the other posts involved.

9 February 1979

CONFIDE TIAL

DF Murray