19° 6+ ·
CONFIDENTIAL
HK
02712
-2 FEB 1984
Enter
FROM:
M Elliott
Far Eastern Department
DATE:
27 January 1984
cc:
PS
Mr. Hean Mr Hoare 30/
Crt 271,
All we can do in the cries
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Mr Clift, HKD
PS/Mr Luce
Mr Donald
SECRETARY OF STATE'S VISIT TO THE FAR EAST
1. I have briefly discussed your minute of 26 January to the Private Secretary with Mr Ricketts.
2.
A telegram has now issued and should shortly be in the distribution. The proposal, which is still very tentative as far as Peking and Hong Kong are concerned, is now that the Secretary of State should go direct from Tokyo to Peking on 27 April in order to meet the requirement originating with Sir P Cradock that he should spend a minimum of two nights in Peking. He would then go on to Hong Kong on Sunday 29 April, leaving for the UK in the evening of 30 April. Private Office say that it is not possible to delay the Secretary of State's return to the UK beyond the morning of 1 May.
The
3. Although this plan has disadvantages both in bringing the Secretary of State to Hong Kong and therefore exposing him to questioning after his visit to Peking, and in rendering it more difficult to plan firmly on a Hong Kong visit until a decision about the Peking visit is taken, it seemed in the circumstances to be the only way of meeting the requirements. It would have the incidental advantage of avoiding the over- lap of the visits to Hong Kong by Mr Stanley and the Secretary of State. The present plan is that Mr Stanley should go direct to China, arriving on 24 or 25 April. It should be possible for him to have left Peking for other points in China before the Secretary of State arrives there on 27 April, and similarly to have left Hong Kong before the Secretary of State arrives there on 29 April. If it is decided that the Secretary of State should not visit Peking but should go direct from Tokyo to Hong Kong on 27 April then Mr Stanley could perhaps extend his stay in China by a day or two so as to avoid an overlap.
4. At present this is all very hypothetical; the Chinese have not yet confirmed their agreement to the dates for Mr Stanley's visit, the Reagan visit to China may complicate things (we have asked the Embassy to comment on this), and the Secretary of State's own plans for Peking and Hong Kong are as yet undecided. I have therefore agreed with Mr Ricketts that we should not seek to resolve the problem of a possible clash of visits at this stage but await developments.
27 January 1984
CONFIDENTIAL
Markshishk
M Elliott
22
Far Eastern Department
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