CONFIDENTIAL
1. I decided to hold on to these papers until I knew the outcome of yesterday's meeting of ODO(SA).
2. It seems to me that large sums of money will be needed for relief and reconstruction in the Falkland Islands on any plausible assumption about their political future. In strictly financial terms, a contribution of £20 million from Hong Kong to help meet the need would be very welcome. But, as Mr Clift and Mr Donald have made clear, it would be difficult for the British Government to accept such a sum (or, indeed, any money) from the Hong Kong Government; and I am not sure that the acceptance of money from a non-governmental source in Hong Kong would be compatible with our ideas, such as they are, about sources of finance for relief and reconstruction in the Islands. You will, I think, be able to form a clearer view than me about this. In any case, I suppose it is possible that Sir S Y Chung and Mr Lobo are thinking only in terms of a contribution by the Hong Kong Government and that they would be unwilling to suggest or sponsor any other kind of fund-raising.
3.
My understanding is that the money raised by the Cayman Islanders will be paid into the fund which has been established for the dependants or servicemen killed or wounded in the Falkland Islands. I imagine that there would be no objection to money raised by private subscription in Hong Kong also being paid into this fund.
3 June 1982
Rm. Frons
R M Evans
These papers are marked to you next, and I am sure that you will wish to give early consideration to them, particularly in the light of Hong Kong telegram No 580 which asks for very early approval of the proposed publicity line, in case there is a leak about the offer. The line suggested by Sir E Youde seems sensible enough to me.
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2. But I am not happy with the line taken by those immediately responsible for Hong Kong. Of course there are anxieties about the Chinese view of a donation on this munificent scale. But it simply will not do to say that the offers should be directed to a public fund when, so far as I know, there is no fund appropriate for a donation of this magnitude. The dependants of Servicemen killed would receive individual benefits of the kind which gave rise to such anxiety in the case of the Penlee lifeboat disaster.
3. We do not yet know how much the reconstruction programme in the Falkland Islands will cost once hostilities cease. But
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CONFIDENTIAL
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