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I told them that the FCO had made its views known to Mr Nott, without going into details. Attack being the best form of defence, I also asked why it was that no-one in Hong Kong appeared to have taken on the information task of publicising the reasons given by the CAA for their decision. After all, whether one agreed or not, the CAA had based their decision on what they considered to be the best interests of the consumer in Hong Kong as well as Britain. The answer I got from the Secretariat was that since they profoundly disagreed with the CAA they could hardly be expected to take on this role. I understood that the BTC were also anxious not to get involved, for the legitimate reason that they feared a backlash against British exports. The fact is that the CAA's and in a sense HMG's case has gone by default in a situation which threatens to be a serious irritant in our relations with Hong Kong. This seems to be rather regrettable. I do not know how such information questions are normally handled in Hong Kong; you may think this is an area that needs looking into.
4. The Secretariat told me that they were preparing the Hong Kong Government's Political Memorandum to the Secretary of State for Trade (designed to stimulate a direction on his part) and would forward it by mid-May. They asked whether it would be appropriate for this to be sent through the FCO. I said that this would be a good idea, provided it was consistent with normal practice. did not say, but thought to myself, that it might also be useful for us to have a second opportunity of making the views of FCO Ministers known to Mr Nott in the form of a covering letter to the Hong Kong Memorandum.
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5.
At Mr Keep's luncheon for me, it came out that a number of Hong Kong bodies were considering sending petitions to Mr Nott. It also emerged that among them was the Chinese Chamber of Commerce which had gone to the length of seeking instructions on the subject from Peking. They had hitherto been reluctant to take any action for fear of appearing to criticise HMG. I think this an interesting development.
6.
It is fair to add with some people I spoke to thought that the reaction among the Chinese in Hong Kong was much less strong than among the expatriates; all that the former were interested in was the lowest possible fare. The Deputy Managing Director of Jardine Metheson, whom I also met, was noticeably more relaxed than others, no doubt because of his company's long-standing competition with Swires (and also they are the BA agents in Hong Kong!)
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