TNAG-1237-FCO40-1550-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 6

HE through CS

CONFIDENTIAL

K

SGD 3/03

MKK040|1

18 MAY 1983

(30)

Future of Hong Kong: Visit to Peking by Deputy Chairman of Hongkong and Shanghai

Banking Corporation

300

My minute of 5 May refers. Mr Hammond and

Mr Q W Lee called on me on the morning of Saturday, 7 May

to discuss their recent visit to Peking. Mr Hammond

explained that he had not been able to come earlier as he

had been abroad.

2.

Mr Hammond said that I would have seen the record of

the call on LIAO Chengzhi. It looked pretty thin.

He

had forgotten to make some of the points which he had

intended to put across, eg the fact that many young professionals were leaving or were preparing to leave, and accepted that he might have been a little too bland. Nonetheless, he had been quite encouraged by what LIAO had said, and by the fact that he had not mentioned sovereignty. I said that no special importance should be attached to this. The HSBC no doubt had a part in the Chinese scheme

of things and LIAO would naturally have wished to reassure

the Bank visitors that everything would be alright. He

would not have mentioned sovereignty because that was a

matter for the two Governments; indeed, it was an underlying assumption in his remarks that sovereignty would be conceded.

3.

Mr Hammond said that he had not wished to be too "political" in talking to LIAO, among other things because he had had the impression that the Governor had had reser- vations about the call. However, he accepted that LIAO had introduced the subject of the future, and that it had given him an opportunity which he had not made the most of. I said that you had not had reservations about his visit; you had merely wanted to be sure that the Ambassador was content, and that had been established.

CONFIUL

/4.