TNAG-1032-FCO40-1282-Possible-visit-by-Margaret-Thatcher--UK-Prime-Minister--to-H-1981 — Page 20

DSR 11 (Revised)

DRAFT:

CONFIDENTIAL

minute/letter/tololetter/despatch/note

TYPE: Draft/Final 1+

FROM:

Reference

Private Secretary

DEPARTMENT:

TEL. NO:

Private Secretary

No 10 Downing Street

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

TO:

Top Secret

Secret

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

PRIVACY MARKING

CAVEAT.

..In Confidence

attached to

Enclosures-flag(s)...........

SUBJECT:

Your Reference

Copies to:

Sir Y-K Pao wrote to the Prime Minister on

12 November. Lord Carrington has now received a reply

to his letter to Y-K Pao, the text of which was cleared with you my letter of 5 November refers).

I enclose a draft reply from the Prime Minister which, if approved, we suggest should be sent to Hong Kong by telegram so as to reach Sir Y-K Pao before his departure for China on 6 December.

You will notice that there appears

to be an inconsistency between Sir Y-K Pao's letter to the Prime Minister and his letter to Lord Carrington. In the latter it is clear that he is thinking in terms of the Prime Minister's participation in a launch ceremony in Shanghai (which is what we always thought to be the case); but in his letter to the Prime Minister it appears that he may envisage her launching one of his ships under construction at the Austin & Pickersgill yard in the

north east. We are not sure whether this was an oversignt on Sir Y-K Pao's part or whether it reflects the Prime Minister's letter of 19 October, which we have

not seen.