TNAG-1847-FCO40-2622-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 12

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335

CONFIDENTIAL

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•R72874 Miss Marsoen Misp/Elor

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FROM:

DATE:

Mr Paul, Hong Kong Dept.

FAC HONG KONG INQUIRY

CC:

D Holt

Parliamentary Relations Unit

26 April 1989

Private Secretary

PS/Lord Glenarthur HKB 011/3

PS/PUS

Mr Gillmore

Mr McLaren

FED

C.

1. Explaining that he had just got in from Heathrow to collect his mail and was pretty non compos the Committee Clerk, Mr Wilson, telephoned this afternoon with some quick first impressions.

2. On the arrangements front, everything had gone well overall. The Committee had been at pains to give the impression the Hong Kong Government were not giving them too much help but that they were relying on the British Trade Commission. There had been some hiccups, but Mr Holloway had been extremely nice and the Administration Officer's wife who had done their typing and manned their temporary press office had been particularly marvellous in the face of the heaviest press attention the Committee had ever received.

3.

The Committee had also its best to demonstrate they were nobody's fifth column. They had tried to show they were not working for the Prime Minister, or the FCO. They hoped the picture had come out right on what Mr Wilson called the nationality "debt of honour" issue. The Committee had tried to keep to sensible debate and had done their best not to allow "too much mud to surface". Politically, Hong Kong was sleepy, said Mr Wilson. It had been clear that political debate was virtually unknown. Some witnesses had been very sensitive to what Mr Wilson thought normal Westminster style questioning. They had, for example, been offended by questions presented in the form of opposing views to their own. It had all been very colonial.

4. Mr Wilson thought HMA in Peking had been "very nervous" of the Committee and of what the Chinese would make of them. What had the FCO said to him? But the Committee had based themselves on his advice, and taking advantage of their non-governmental, non-diplomatic status gone just that bit further in their conversations and questioning. Mr Wilson thought this had proved productive.

How

D Holt

CONFIDENTIAL