PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
ong Kong
Government Office
香港政府駐英辦事處
21 November, 1983
Dictated: 18 November.
Wown Wich,
This morning Sir Philip Goodhart, MP came to see me to talk about a proposal he had made to Ossie Cheung and to Philip Haddon-Cave on the setting up of a "Resettle- ment Fund". The broad detail is given in the attached copy of the letter to Ossie Cheung.
It was quite clear that Philip Goodhart was anxious to be helpful and that, odd though his proposal may be, it was meant with best intentions. Inevitably at the end of a rather long discursive explanation, he asked my opinion.
I said that it was most kind of him to have thought of helping in the way proposed, but went on to say that I had very serious reservations as to whether it would be at all helpful if he were to make such a proposal publicly (he had suggested that perhaps he should arrange for a question to be asked in the House as to whether the Government would agree that his proposal is one which should be supported and introduced during the course of next year). I suggested that in Hong the proposal would almost certainly be misunderstood as indicating that in the mind of a senior Tory MP, it was clear that he believed that Hong Kong peoples' hopes and expectations for the future could not be realised. Sir Philip disagreed with this, suggesting that quite the opposite might be the truth, that Hong Kong people would welcome his proposal as putting pressure on the Chinese who would be encouraged to accept the British and Hong Kong Governments negotiating stance. I did not attempt to go further into this with Sir Philip but merely said that we would have to agree to disagree.
R.D. Clift, Esq.,
Hong Kong Department,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
King Charles Street,
London, SW1A 2AH.
6 Grafton Street London WIX 3LB
.../.
Telephone: 01-499 9821
Telex: 2840
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.