TNAG-1304-FCO40-1660-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1984 — Page 119

CONFIDENTIAL

St

FROM: P J GOULDEN, NEWS

DATE: 16 JULY 1984

M.dam

HIK

RECEIVE

Private

027ate Secretary

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cc:

26 JUL 1984

Л Ри

& Poster

PS/Mr Luce

컬

Sir P Cradock

Mr Galsworthy, HKD Mr Houston

HONG KONG VISIT: THE PRESS

1. The Secretary of State and Mr Luce agreed at this morning's meeting that we would need to give a lot of attention to handling the press this week. may be worth summarising what can be done.

2.

It

The statement in the House on Wednesday will be carried mainly by the Lobby. I do not think that their expectations will be particularly high, though they are already aware of rumours that the statement may include something on the test of acceptability. I think that it would be enough for me to brief the Lobby immediately afterwards. If, however, the temper seems likely to rise among the Lobby correspondents, it would be useful to have in reserve the possibility of a briefing for them by Mr Luce.

3. Prior to the Secretary of State's visit, we should brief the diplomatic correspondents who are principally interested in Hong Kong. I do not think that we can afford to delay this until the Secretary of State's breakfast briefing on Friday (which would in any case range much more widely than Hong Kong). I therefore suggest that Sir P Cradock should take this on. We would propose to include journalists from the 3 main Sundays.

4. As of today, there is probably no need for any pre- visit radio interviews. If, however, the media seems to be in danger of becoming over-excited about the visit, there would be a case for an interview with the World Service and one Hong Kong station. The message would be that this visit is not designed to finalize the agreement or secure a decisive breakthrough: its purpose is to review the negotiations at the highest level and to consult a range of opinion in Hong Kong

5. Mr Luce said that he might be able to find time to speak to Mr Schreiber of the Economist. This would in my view be well worth doing, since we have not been able to give him a proper briefing for several weeks.

Joh

Coulder

PJ Goulden

CONTTUUNTUNGANTÁT