Private Secretary
HONG KONG VISIT: BRIEFING ARRANGEMENTS
From:
RA Burns
News Department
Date: 22 June 1989
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1. In your minute of 20 June you recorded the Secretary of State's willingness to go along with my suggestion that he might brief the British journalists over breakfast one morning next week before the
visit to Hong Kong.
2. I have been reflecting further on this, particularly in the light of the very full statements which Ministers have made recently (notably by the Secretary of State to the Foreign Affairs Committee
and Lord Glenarthur in the House of Lords). I have discussed the
matter further with Mr McLaren. It is not clear at this stage
whether in fact the Secretary of State will have more that it is
useful for him to say before he sets out for Hong Kong. Indeed if
the cards in our hand are somewhat limited it may be prudent not to
reveal too much before we arrive.
3. This could change if there are major developments between now
and the visit in China, but Mr McLaren and I tend now to the view
that the best pre-visit briefing would be to offer the journalists on Thursday 29 June at 11.30 a factual briefing about the Joint
Declaration and subsequent negotiations. Whether or not the Secretary of State will have some new initiatives or concessions to offer in Hong Kong, it will surely be one of his main objectives to remind everyone of why the Joint Declaration is such a good agreement. Quite a number of British journalists travelling out to Hong Kong will not be aware of the background and it would be useful to remind them and their colleagues who will write the story from
London.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.