TNAG-1155-FCO40-1435-Visits-by-Members-of-Parliament-(MPs)-to-Hong-Kong-1982 — Page 75

CONFIDENTIAL AND STRICTLY PERSONAL

(165

(591,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

HKK 026/2

Sir Edward Youde KCMG MBE Governor and Commander-in-Chief HONG KONG

Dear Tedely,

1.

15 December 1982

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HK22 026/2

nolad Pan

TB 15/12

I thought you should know about a point which has come up in connection with the Select Committee for Industry and Trade's visit in November. You may already have heard about it from Christian Adams.

2.

Lord Belstead briefed the Select Committee informally on 10 November. The main points which came up on Hong Kong, particularly concerning textiles,/were passed on to you and BTC Hong Kong in FCO telegram No 945 of 11 November (attached). The existence and contents of this telegram were apparently revealed by Bill Dorward when he met the Committee in Hong Kong, in particular the fact that we had named the MPs who had raised certain points with Lord Belstead. Some Committee members took exception to their private briefing being reported in this way. The Chairman, Sir Donald Kaberry, smoothed matters over at the time, but has since written to Lord Belstead complaining about the disclosure.

3.

(154)

It is in fact quite proper for posts to be warned of a Select Committee's preoccupations, and even if it had been a regular Select Committee hearing, the MPs would not have had any justifiable cause for complaint. Lord Belstead has replied to Sir Donald along these lines.

4.

I think thematter has been settled so far as London is concerned. However I am a bit worried about Bill Dorward's disclosure of the telegram. I know that we put no caveat on it, but the way he handled the matter seems to have been rather damaging. We gather that he tried to refute some points made on textiles by Lord Belstad and thus was seen to be openly contesting the Minister's arguments. I realise that it was perfectly reasonable for the Hong Kong Government to put their case strongly but this could equally well have been done without reference to the telegram.

/5.

CONFIDENTIAL AND STRICTLY PERSONAL

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