TNAG-2355-FCO40-3426-Visit-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Co-1991 — Page 140

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(c) the Senior British Trade Commissioner includes, as

the Governor has suggested, senior office holders of the

British Chamber of Commerce in his lunch.

Argument

3. The draft programme is generally fine. It contains all the essential elements of a visit, without being overloaded.

4. I understand that the Private Secretaries wonder whether

the programme is excessively weighted towards ExCo. It is of course essential that the Secretary of State meets ExCo

members both before and after the China visit. This will

give him the opportunity to listen to their advice about the handling of the visit and to brief them on the outcome afterwards. EXCO will also be represented at the dinner on arrival. I think this is right too. Their presence at this small informal gathering of the "inner circle" would be

expected.

5. The Private Secretaries have asked whether it would be helpful to include businessmen and other representatives of commercial interests to the dinner. This would change the nature of the event and I would advise against it.

In any case, ExCo members such as Mr Willie Purves are very well qualified to put the businessman's point of view.

However, we could seek the Governor's advice about this.

6. The work of the JLG will feature significantly during the Secretary of State's visit to China. In view of this, a visit to the JLG office would be most desirable, so as to send a signal to Peking about the importance we attach to the JLG. It would also provide an opportunity for the Secretary of State to discuss with Mr Galsworthy the work of the JLG and relations with China over Hong Kong. It would however be more useful if this meeting took place before the visit to China, rather than after it. This could be done by

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