TNAG-1173-FCO40-1465-Future-of-Hong-Kong-special-study-by-FCO-for-the-Prime-Minis-1982 — Page 87

Mr Giffard

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PS/Lord Belstead Sir J Bullard

PA

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FUTURE OF HONG KONG SPECIAL STUDY

1. My minute of 27 August submitting this study said that Whitehall Departments had been consulted on appropriate Annexes.

2. The Ministry of Defence have now told us that, although they have at official level made a number of comments on Annex J on Defence and Internal Security, there are senior officials in the Ministry who do not agree with it without being able to give it further consideration. In order to do this properly they consider that they should be able to see the main paper with its policy recommendations. In addition, the Secretary of State for Defence has asked to see the whole study before it is submitted to the Prime Minister.

3. I have discussed with Mr Jackling in DS11 explaining that the study is one personally commissioned by the Prime Minister from the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. We would need to consult our Secretary of State on distribution before it went to No 10. Meanwhile I said that we would not intend to suggest that the study or the Annex were endorsed by anyone outside the FCO.

4. Mr Jackling was still not happy with this. He believed that Mr Nott would consider it unwise to put any recommendations to the Prime Minister with judgements on the Hong Kong Garrison which did not have his endorsement, no matter what caveat the FCO might express in submitting the study to No 10. If we were not able to pass the study to the Ministry of Defence he hoped that the Annex on defence could be removed. I said that would seriously detract from its usefulness. At the very least we should include paragraphs 1-5 on the present situation,

although that would not be a very satisfactory compromise. But I said that I would in any case need to get Ministers' views here.

5. I do not think that there is any need to hold up the study going to the Secretary of State although the Private Secretary may wish to note that there is no MOD endorsement of Annex J, and that it should not be sent to the Prime Minister until this is sorted out.

6. You may wish to discuss this before I submit an how we respond to the MOD. The main alternatives are:

a) agreeing to their request to see the main paper but asking them to confine their comments directly to the question of the Garrison;

/b)

SECRET