asto me
ضيع
RP Margolis Esq
DPA
Hong Kong
Dea
British Embassy Paking
9 August 1983
(968.
0 Mystone - any obeyse
12578
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Done) 1918.
Mr. Monis to see or
R
2) Orth.
©
Me Phot
MKK040/1
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
24 AUG 1983
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
Richand
PA
и
HONG KONG OBSERVERS
REGISTRY
Action Taken
CMisla
т
On 19/8.
No coments really, except that the wiith were to me too. Frah Alming
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the early days
of
was indeed a leading light
the Observers, but had dropped
of sight easy. I now see why. I
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1. I had lunch on 8 August with Frank Ching, who used to be the Peking correspondent of the Wall Street Journal until a few months ago. He has now left the Wall Street Journal and is freelancing in Hong Kong while he writes a book about the history of his family clan. He has been up here for a month ostensibly doing research on it. Frank made a good-natured attempt to extract information from me about the Hong Kong talks, unsuccessfully.
2. He then told me that he was a founder member of the Observers, a fact which I think Bob Peirce knew, but I did not. He added that he exected to come here in November with a delegation from the Hong Kong Observers, though it was not yet quite clear who would participate. This is news to us: we understood that the Observers had decided not to send a specific delegation'
but
that some of their members would accompany other delegations, as for
श्र instance Mary Lee did when she came with the Young Professionals. If indeed Frank Ching is coming with the Observers he could be useful: he is very shrewd, has a much better understanding of the Hong Kong-Peking equation than any other foreign journalist I know here, and is usually prepared to speak and write his mind in a pretty blunt way. He told me he would be getting in touch with you in Hong Kong and no doubt you may be able to learn more from him about the delegation.
3.
Frank when he was in Peking was quite unlike other correspondents in that his sources of information were almost exclusively on the Chinese side. I believe he has family relatives in fairly influential positions in China, and he was able to gain access to a number of cadres whom correspondents do not normally see. In fact when he was asking me about the Hong Kong talks and I declined to comment on the question of an agenda, Frank proceeded to give me an extremely accurate account of phase one of the talks and the discussions with the Chinese about the premise of sovereignty. I of course declined to comment on it, but I am pretty sure that he has had it all from Chinese sources.
cc: W Morris Esq, HKD, FCO
CONFIDENTIAL
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I ever
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A C Galsworthy
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