TNAG-1255-FCO40-1588-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 180

DIEU

SECRET AND PERSONAL

fice

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

(332 333)

DMD Thomas Esq CMG

WASHINGTON

Dear Derek,

HONG KONG

MKK040/5

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY 2 1SEP 1983

DESK OFFICER

20 September 1983

REGISTRY

INDEX

PA

Action Taken

m

смазка

1. Alan Donald, who has left for the Far East with Mr Luce, has asked me to reply to your personal letters of 25 August and 15 September about your conversation with Brown at the State Department.

2. We were grateful for your account of your briefing of Brown. We realise that the material you had may have seemed rather thin. You know the background to this. Although the Prime Minister has authorised briefing of the Americans on a considerably more forthcoming basis than that applying to other friends and allies, we have not been able to get anywhere near to giving a detailed account of the talks. That said, the material which was sent to you did give a pretty good summary of the position reached by the time the talks went into recess.

3.

However, as you say, we have provided fuller briefing for the Prime Minister's visit to Washington. Although the Secretary of State will not be accompanying her there, we have given him material which he should be able to use in New York if he gets a suitable opportunity with Shultz. This includes a complete list of the points included in the Chinese 'plan' as described to Percy Cradock by the Chinese negotiator.

4. As you say, the next round of talks in Peking will come just before the visit. If we can get you any further analysis on that to add to the brief we shall of course send it by telegram. We would like to consider at that stage as well whether there is anything you could put across to Ji Chaatsu.

5. When we know what exchanges the Prime Minister and Secretary of State eventually have with the Americans, the way will be open for Percy Cradock and Teddy Youde to provide additional briefing to their own US colleagues at their discretion.

Yuus

Dick

R D Clift

Hong Kong Department

cc: Sir P Cradock GCMG

PEKING

Sir E Youde GCMG MBE HONG KONG

RJ O'Neill Esq CMG Cabinet Office

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