TNAG-1249-FCO40-1563-Press-reports-on-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 140

R & R

Mr Morris HKD

NR

1.

CODE 18-77

CONFIDENT TAI

खाड

Reference

MKK04012

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

DEEK

INDEX

2. SEP 1933

METUSTRY

Action Taken

(244)

FUTURE OF HONG KONG:

PRESS COVERAGE

7

You asked if there were any reason to doubt the view expressed by Mr Smith in his teleletter to you of 19 September.

2. I agree that the intention of the piece was to attack the general argument rather than any specific attack. Nonetheless it does appear that this story was first put out on 15 September and was then reissued on 16 September in a much more strongly worded version. The latter version does contain the reference to a "popular feeling poll staged by the British authorities in Hong Kong' whereas the earlier version states, perhaps more accurately, that "the Hong Kong British authorities have recently launched a drive to solicit public opinion

11

3. Unfortunately I do not yet have a Chinese version of the story from People's Daily. I do not think however that there has been a mistranslation. Rather I suspect that the Chinese language press carried the earlier more sensibly worded report. The report was then re-edited by NCNA to make the attack stronger. It is this version that was then put out under the headline "Hong Kong press exposes hypocrisy of British authorities' 'popular feeling poll".

4. I attach copies of the two NCNA reports.

28 September 1983

cc:

Mr Thomson, FED

R F Wye

Far Eastern Section Research Department OAB 2/126 273 5044

CONFIDENTIAL