TNAG-1258-FCO40-1591-Third-countries-and-the-future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 15

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BRIEFING OF THIRD COUNTRIES

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1. Please refer to Mr Morris' minute of 14 December (attached) and in particular to its paragraph 9. Although I agree that the briefing of our allies is a time-consuming business I think that it must probably remain on an individual, on-demand basis, for the following reasons:

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

2.

the adoption of а system of regular group briefings tends to put us under a precise and formal obligation to Our allies. This is undesirable in itself. We may not always want to volunteer a briefing after each of the future rounds of talks with the Chinese;

briefings on these lines tend to be resented by their recipients, and to inhibit individuals from reacting with insights or information of their own. With different interlocutors we may wish to make specific points or to ask specific questions;

such an arrangement tends to highlight the fact that we are working on different levels of disclosure with different governments.

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This is not to say that a once-off group briefing might not in

some circumstances be useful. Once we have decided to bring our community partners into our confidence, there might be merit in summoning them collectively. In the meantime, although I do not want to push myself forward, I should be happy if members of the Department who are in more demand than I off-loaded some of their briefing obligations on

3.

me.

Mr Schram, the Political Counsellor at the Canadian Embassy, called on me on 13 December for an up-date on the last round of talks. I spoke on the lines of the briefing which we had prepared for the visit of his foreign minister, elaborating a little on the areas of detail where we and the

measure of

common ground. Mr Schram did not have time to ask any questions before I was whisked away to a meeting.

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15 December 1983

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