TNAG-1891-FCO40-2684-Visits-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe-and-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretaries-1989 — Page 21

Y

CONFIDENTIAL

JON ABB

FILE

From:

A R Paul

Hong Kong Department

Date:

16 June 1989

Cc:

PS/Lord Glenarthur

Mr Gillmore

Mr McLaren

Mr Burns, News Dept

Miss Agnew, Protocol Dept

Private Secretary

VISIT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO HONG KONG : 2-4 JULY

1.

The Secretary of State might appreciate an indication of our preliminary thinking about the programme for his forthcoming visit

to Hong Kong.

A B 2. I attach Hong Kong telnos 1977-78, in which the Governor sets

out some initial ideas for the programme.

3.

I agree that a key objective of the visit should be to listen to

the concerns of Hong Kong people; and as far as possible to reassure them about HMG's commitment to the Territory I think it is

particularly important that he should have ample opportunity to get

out and about and to meet and have a dialogue with a broad cross section of the community.

-

4. The attached draft programme is evidently drafted with these objectives. The lunch with bankers, businessmen and professionals

on 3 July will be particularly useful. But I wonder whether it

might be possible to expand this into a seminar type format, perhaps built around the lunch, to give more time for a full exchange of views. It would give the Secretary of State more time, both to listen and to get his message across.

CONFIDENTIAL