TNAG-2295-FCO40-3309-Possible-visit-by-the-Dalai-Lama-to-Hong-Kong-1991 — Page 2

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PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING WITH THE DALAI LAMA

The Prime Minister will have half an hour with the

Dalai Lama on 2 December. The Archbishop of Canterbury will also be present. The Dalai Lama will probably be accompanied by an interpreter and it is likely that an

accompanying official from the Office of Tibet in London will wait in an adjoining room.

His visit, which is private, is from 30 November to 3 December, and the main purpose is to participate in

a debate at the Oxford Union later on 2 December. He has

visited Britain several times since his first visit in 1973. This will be his second visit here this year. In March he followed a high-profile schedule organised by the Tibet Support Groups to mark the so-called "International Year of Tibet". He met the Lord Chancellor (the first time he had been received by a Government Minister), the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Gloucester. There was widespread public criticism that neither the Prime Minister nor the Foreign Secretary received him. At that stage our policy was driven by a

wish to remain well within the pack. Few other major

Western leaders had then received him and successive British Governments, having in mind Britain's important direct interests in Hong Kong - not matched by any real

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