Mr Paul, HKD
CONFIDENTIAL
HKB 026/20
57
The Secretary of State's Visit to Hong Kong
The Secretary of State has seen your submission of 16 June. He has also seen Mr Burns' submission of the same date.
The Secretary of State agrees that Mr Heap's interests must be fully catered for in the programme but that the speech platform should certainly be a Hong Kong rather than a British commercial one. He thinks that the speech should be made on the first day, not on the second.
The Secretary of State would not wish to give his press conference at the airport on departure. It should be in the middle of the afternoon on the last day to allow time for interviews and for the journalists to file their reports.
The Secretary of State would welcome advice from the Governor and from you and Mr Burns on whether he should consider a broadcast to the people of Hong Kong.
On previous visits the press conference has served as a broadcast. One alternative might be to turn his speech/ seminar on the first day into such an event, ie a live broadcast.
The Secretary of State agrees with Mr Burns' recommendations on media handling in his minute of 16 June. At the moment there are breakfast slots on 28, 29 and 30 June. He also agrees that it would be sensible for News Department to send an officer to Hong Kong in advance of the visit.
The Secretary of State saw the container port on his last visit to Hong Kong. The Eastern Harbour Crossing sounds like the right sort of outing for this trip.
20 June 1989
CC:
PS/Lord Glenarthur
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Miss Spencer
Mr Burns, News Dept
Miss Agnew, Protocol Dept
CONFIDENTIAL
(R N Peirce)
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