TNAG-1307-FCO40-1664-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1984 — Page 91

CONFIDENTIAL

Extin Me Prest

MICK048/1

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

FROM:

H B WARREN-GASH

DATE: 8 February 1984

Mr Donald

Mr Thomson, FED NENAD

Mr Chift, HKD

10 FEB 1934

cc:

DESK OF MO

INDEX

REGISTRY Action Teken

'll

SOUTHERN TV PROGRAMME ON HONG KONG : SIR IAN GILMOUR

1. Mr Luce was grateful for the briefing material submitted with your note of 7 February. He has now spoken to Sir Ian Gilmour.

2.

Not on our port mon-G; hiperhaps on yours!

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There appears to have been some confusion about the nature of the programme on which Sir I Gilmour is appearing with Dr Owen. It will in fact cover foreign policy issues in general. Sir I Gilmour's main focus of interest was therefore, not unnaturally in the circumstances, the Middle East particularly Lebanon. On this last point, Mr Luce referred him to the Parliamentary statement due to be made this afternoon.

-

3. Mr Luce went on to say that, in view of Dr Owen's recent visit to China, the subject of Hong Kong might well come up. He offered him the unclassified speaking note attached to your minute. Sir I Gilmour accepted with alacrity, and we have now arranged for this to be passed across to him. Luce continued that we would in no way wish to inhibit Sir I Gilmour from expressing his own views on Hong Kong. Points relevant to the talks that he might care to bear in mind, however, were:

(i)

(ii)

(iii)

It was in the common interest of all the parties to maintain the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong.

Mr

Dr Owen had said publicly that Britain had abandoned all claims to sovereignty. It was not open to

the negotiators to abandon anything. In this country, it was for Parliament to judge what constituted an acceptable package.

There had been no ''sell out''. There was press speculation that Britain had now conceded everything and that an agreement with China could be reached any minute. This was obviously both naive and

The fact was that we were engaged in difficult and lengthy negotiations. There could

misleading.

CONFIDENTIAL

/be no

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