SECRET
569
file
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone 01.
CD Powell Esq
UKREP BRUSSELS
THE
MKK040/5
AVLIVED IN REGISTAY
Your reference
Our reference HKK 040/5
17 NOV 1933
Date
DESK
HOF N
तै
CHOB
EUROPEAN COMMISSION AND HONG KONG
16 November 1983
1. We were grateful for your damage-limitation efforts in respect of MT lorn's talks with the Chinese on Hong Kong earlier this month. It is as well that we provided some briefing for him, but I need hardly say that we were most peturbed when we learnt that he had briefed EC Ambassadors in Peking after his talks, and subsequently that a record had been distributed within the Commission.
2.
The whole question of Hong Kong's future is, as you will appreciate, extremely sensitive and complex. On the Prime Minister's instructions knowledge of the negotiations has been kept very close. We have been keeping only certain of our closest allies in the picture and most of them not fully. I am sure there will come a time when it would be right for us to bring our European partners more fully into the picture, but we would rather this timing was of our own choosing!
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3. We note that M Thorn's Deputy Chef de Cabinet seemed confident that there would be no leak, and those who had received the record were aware of the need for discretion. I only hope his optimism proves justified and that there is no further fallout from this unfortunate episode. If you do hear anything, from any quarter, which suggests that the information has leaked further, please let us know at once.
cc: Mr Lewimgton, ECD (E)
RP Margolis Esq DPA, HONG KONG
A C Galsworthy Esq, PEKING Mr Thomson, FED
CO Hum
Hong Kong Department
SECRET
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