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POLITICAL/ECONOMIC INFORMATION WORK BY THE BTC
It
5. The Senior Trade Commissioner has felt inhibited from taking an active role in political and economic information work in Hong Kong because of the Governor's apparent desire that the role of the Trade Commission should be strictly commercial. This, however, raises a number of problems. means that people in Hong Kong may be deprived of guidance on the British Government's thinking and the Senior British Trade Commissioner is placed in a difficult position in conversation with his interlocutors in the Colony. The problem is accentuated where there is a clear difference of view between the British Government and the Hong Kong Administration, eg over EEC textiles policy. This problem was discussed in some detail both with Mr. Ford, the Secretary for Information, and Mr. March, the Senior Trade Commissioner. Mr. Ford said that he understood that in the past there had been an informal agreement whereby the British Trade Commissioner had been in a position to give unattributable briefing to selected members of the media and that this arrangement had worked perfectly well because it had been done with the knowledge, and indeed agreement, of the Hong Kong Government Information Services. He would himself raise with the Governor the possibility of this practice being re-established but didsnotnenvisage any problems.
6. If such an arrangement is agreed, it would underline the need for the Senior Trade Commissioner to be fully briefed on British Government, thinking. As it is the BTC receives major
Guidances, Verbatim telegrams and LPS stories (which at present can only be used for internal briefing within the Commission). There is, however, a lack of briefing on specific trade and industrial subjects. This seems to stem from a positive policy of DOT and DOI not to keep the British Trade Commission informed. This leads to the situation that Mr. March's Hong Kong Government contacts know more about HMG's policy than he does himself. His credibility is thus undermined.
7. A potential problem which could cause trouble in the future is where the Hong Kong Government act as agents for UK government departments. This could be/čase over passports and migration where there is a, perhaps understandable, tendency for the Hong Kong authorities to put blame for delays etc on the British departments concerned.
THE HONG KONG INFORMATION MACHINE.
8. Mr. Ford, as Secretary for Information, is still in the process of creating his office. This is likely to be small and to operate separately from the organisations with which he is concerned principally the Government Information Service and Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK). At the moment his
/office
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