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I gather from Patrick Williamson's letter to Alan Mason of 30 March (HKK 021/1) that HMG is reluctant to see visas issued by any organisation other than a consulate, although the letter conceded that Hong Kong might be a special case. I think it must indeed be seen as a special case. This approach comes soon after the revival of the suggestion that the Chinese should have official representation here. would be very foolish to provide a rod to beat ourselves with by giving the Chinese a justified reason for saying that the present unofficial arrangements are inadequate.
It
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I am not, incidentally, too concerned about the danger of establishing precedents for e.g. the Vietnamese. We can say plausibly that China is a special case. In addition, unless and until we want to allow the Vietnamese to be more active here we can simply refuse permission. If they choose to adopt some system of visa promise letters, that need not worry us.
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If you agree, I would like to respond to Mr Li's approach by saying that we consider the modalities of issuing travel documents to visit China to be a matter for them and that we have no objection to such documents being issued in Hong Kong. I would go on to suggest that the most appropriate organisation for issuing such travel documents would seem to be China Travel Service. I would also make sure in discussion that the name of any issuing office was suitably innocuous and did not imply official representation.
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possible. telegram.
I would like to follow this up as quickly as
Could you please give me authority to act by
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RC Samuel Esq
Far Eastern Department
TJ B George Esq
PEKING
له
(D C Wilson)
(
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