TNAG-1028-FCO40-1278-Visits-by-Members-of-Parliament-to-Hong-Kong-1981 — Page 4

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Reference.

16-7°

NOTE FOR FILE

MR ROBERT BATTERSBY

1.

At his own request European Parliament for

10 NOV 1921

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Mr Robert Battersby,

Mr Robert Battersby, Member of the Humberside, called on Mr Davies and

myself to brief us on the outcome of his recent visit to China as a Member of the European Parliamentary delegation (1-10 September)

2. Mr Battersby arrived in a state of some intoxication, having enjoyed an extremely good lunch. Most of what he said was therefore more confused and inconsequential than usual.

He

3. Mr Battersby made much of the fact that he had by chance been appointed 'First Vice President of the Delegation'. suggested that this, together with his previous knowledge of China (as a businessman) and his smattering of Chinese, gave him particularly good access to the thinking of his Chinese hosts. then went through a number of points he had picked up in conversat- ion with middle-ranking Chinese officials, none of which were of any particular significance or worth recording.

4.

He

A recurrent theme in Mr Battersby's monologue was his visit to the Laser Technology Unit of Hangzhou University. He said he had been trying to interest, without success, the relevant faculty of Hull University in establishing links with Hangzhou. He said that the Chinese at Hangzhou had made fair progress in laser technology and high-speed photography, which he thought worth following up. He said that if HMG could pay his fare to and from Hangzhou he would be pleased to take this one stage further. When Mr Davies explained that money for such visits was simply not available under present circumstances, Mr Battersby, whose wife and daughter had accompanied him to China at the Commission's expense, seemed genuinely surprised.

5.

After about half an hour, Mr Battersby was decanted into HKGD to see Mr Clift.

LAST PAPER

18 November 1981

A.R. Pan L

A R Paul

Far Eastern Department

Cc:

Chancery Peking

Chancery UKREP Brussels

ECD (E) HKGD

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