TNAG-1338-FCO40-1770-Visit-by-Margaret-Thatcher--UK-Prime-Minister--to-Beijing-fo-1984 — Page 93

From the Private Secretary

CONFIDENTIAL

ET MON

10 DOWNING STREET

HKK040/57

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

23 NOV 1984

DESK OFFICER

Cra 23

(115)

Mr Ham, HKD

الی کیر

es/m loce Sir P Cradock November Wilson

20 November 1984

Dear Rele

INDEX

PA

"Taken

PRIME MINISTER'S VISIT TO THE FAR EAST & UNITED STATES: TIMINGS

Thank you for your letter of 19 November setting out various options for reconciling the Prime Minister's present programme in Peking and Hong Kong with President Reagan's proposal for talks and lunch at Camp David on the morning of Saturday, 22 December,

The Prime Minister's preferred option is to move the whole Peking/Hong Kong visit forward by 24 hours. I should be grateful if urgent instructions could be sent to HM Ambassador Peking to put this to the Chinese as persuasively as possible. I have mentioned this to Sir Percy Cradock, who says that he feels the best course would be to come clean with the Chinese about the reasons for this request: she will be meeting one of the world's great leaders in Peking and will be going straight on to meet another. I would think that we could also make some play with the fact that the Prime Minister is going out of her way to come to China for the signing of the Agreement; and that the Chinese themselves were earlier flexible about the precise date in the period immediately before Christmas,

Peter Ricketts, Esq.,

Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

oncerely, yens

люби

Charles Powell

CONFIDENTIAL