234
Mr McLaren, HK&GD
CONFIDENTIALHECK_345/2
TEH 021
3:JULI}/9
1
42A
CHINA VISA OFFICE IN HONG KONG
39
1.
We in FED have noted Hong Kong telegrams 1083 and 1084 and 42) Peking tel no 684 and understand that you too wish to recommend
early acceptance of the Chinese request that their Hong Kong visa office should be described as "the Hong Kong Visa Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the PRC". We should not wish to contest this recommendation but do consider that such a move would cross over the important line of principle to which we have hitherto clung tenaciously.
2.
Your original submission of 14 May suggested that the China Travel Service Office might be the body which issued visas in Hong Kong. You also pointed out that it would be wrong to agree to the Longstanding Chinese request for official representation in Hong Kong without extracting the maximum price in return.
In your subsequent submission of 31 May you agreed with the Governor that agreement to the establishment of a sub-office of the Guangdong Foreign Affairs Bureau would not compromise our position on official representation as it would be responsible to a provincial authority and not a central Government agency.
3. We believe therefore that if we are to concede the point now to the Chinese we ought to seek the maximum price in return. I accept the pressures to establish the Chinese office very soon and that this means that we shall not get a concrete quid pro quo. However I do think that we should insist on a firm undertaking from the Chinese. If they were subsequently to fail to deliver the goods, we should have the sanction of being able to close the visa office.
4.
The first step would seem to be to consult Peking. I attach a draft telegram and should be grateful for your
concurrence.
31 July 1979
CONFIDENTIAL
J. T. Lese felt
J T Masefield Far
Eastern Department
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