CONFIDENTIAL
(c)
After 1997, we shall have a British Consulate General in Hong Kong which will be charged, among other things, with promoting British commercial interests. We need to prepare sensibly for the transition. It would be odd, to say the least, to do this by making a radical change in the way we are represented in Hong Kong now, only to have to revert to official representation in 1997.
4. I also think it rather naive of Lord Derwent to suppose that a Trade Commissioner who was not a Government official would be able to operate without attracting any of the resentments over passport and other issues which any Government representative tends to attract in Hong Kong. Those resentments, and the
numerous other sensitivities, are facts of life.
5. I am copying this minute to the Private Secretary in case Lord Young mentions this issue to the Secretary of State when he sees him at Cabinet tomorrow.
Invanden
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CONFIDENTIAL
RJT McLaren
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