TNAG-1317-FCO40-1720-Future-of-Hong-Kong-meetings-of-the-Cabinet-Defence-and-Over-1984 — Page 61

CONFIDENTIAL

minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note

PRIVATE SECRETARY

DEPARTMENT:

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

TO:

Top Secret

Secret

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

PRIVACY MARKING

CAVEAT..

TEL. NO:

TYPE: Draft/Final 1+

Reference

RP Hatfield Esq

Private Secretary/Secretary of

Cabinet

Cabinet Office

Your Reference

Copies to:

C D Powell Esq No 10

SUBJECT:

..In Confidence

CIRCULATION OF MINISTERIAL CORRESPONDENCE: HONG KONG

1.Thank you for your letter of 4 July.

2.

We have noted all the points you have made, and shall

do our utmost to comply more closely with your

requirements in future.

You will appreciate, however,

:

that we are dealing with a diplomatic negotiation of

great pace and complexity; that each move has to be the

subject of precise consultation with the Peking Embassy

and the Hong Kong Government; that the Hong Kong

Executive Council also has a role to paly in advising the

Governor; and that crowded programmes of Ministerial

travel make it difficult to fit in the direct consultation

with our Ministers that is frequently necessary before

our papers can be prepared. In all these circumstances

I fear that we may still sometimes fall short of the

ideal.

Enclosures--flag(s).

CONFIDENTIAL