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H.E. noted that there are already sufficient channels of liaison on issues which are likely to be of Parliamentary interest; related to this is the increasing awareness of Hong Kong Secretaries and Heads of Departments that UK Parliamentary susceptibilities are something of which they must take account. To have a seconded officer with this specific function could detract from this continuing process, not least by causing our officers to feel that they no longer had to keep the "Whitehall dimension" in the back of their minds.
In regard to (b), the Hong Kong Government channels of distribution are already freely used whenever appropriate on behalf of the UK Government. It should however be up to the UK to remember that they have no representative here to speak up for them on issues over which they diverge from the Hong Kong Government. In these cases a statement issued in the UK will be necessary in order to give us something to put out locally.
The Chief Secretary expressed himself in agreement with H.E.'s views. I think that the secondment of a UK officer in Information Branch who would have to speak out on behalf of the UK Government on occasions when its interests and those of the Hong Kong Government did not necessarily coincide, could prove difficult and embarrassing, and to use the hackneyed phrase would reduce credibility.
From my perusal of the earlier papers on the proposal, there are procedural and financial difficulties involved in creating such a new post, when staff ceilings of departments here are so tight. the light of the above, you will realise I'm sorry to say that we do not feel able to pursue the suggestion.
Zours
Aran
(A.J. Scott)
In
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