TNAG-1159-FCO40-1439-Visit-by-Margaret-Thatcher--UK-Prime-Minister--to-Hong-Kong--1982 — Page 103

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Mr Cox (FED)

PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT TO CHINA: COMMUNICATIONS IN SHANGHAI

1.

Thank you for your minute of 21 July about

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this problem

2. The intention is that the facilities of the US Consulate General would only be used for very urgent or emergency messages and I think that this could be stressed both to the Americans and No 10, with the explanation to the latter that we wish to avoid giving the impression to the Chinese that we are in the American's pocket. I really feel that we have no alternative to these arrangements for very urgent confidential communication because

a) the secure communications on the VC10 are far from reliable on the ground and

for certain types of communication a courier service to and from Peking is liable to be too slow.

b)

See 110,

3. However, if you still feel strongly about this point and would

advise against all contact with the Americans while the party is in Shanghai, or indeed in Peking, perhaps

you could come back to me. We would then have to gracefully withdraw our request to the Americans, but, this could be done by saying that we are now able to make alternative arrangements, (but, in practice this would be only a courier service)

As I say, the technical advice I have received on the VC10's equipment is that because of the curvature of the earth and other factors we are likely to only have 2 hours reliable contact with the UK. A further point is that the radio operator or a member of the crew or No 10 staff would have to sit in the aircraft for 24 hours which will not be acceptable bearing in mind crew duties, etc, particularly when the value of doing so is likely to be limited.

сс

Mr Donald AUSS Mr Barrie NAD Mr Morris

-IKDG Mr Thomson FED

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2

23 July 1982

M M Hall

Protocol and Conference Dept

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