30 August 1991
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
CONFIDENTIAL
HKD $26/133
London SWIA 2AH
Mr. Cox
нко
118
pa
Ac 219
Miss Wanders
Me
2/10
Prime Minister's Visit to China and Hong Kong : Hong Kong Reactions
In your letter of 27 August you said that the Prime Minister would like to know what we were doing to ensure good public reactions in Hong Kong to his visit to Peking and the airport MOU. In Richard Gozney's reply of 28 August he said that we were waiting to hear details from Hong Kong. I now enclose a copy of Hong Kong telno 2701, which summarizes arrangements.
I should add that we have been working at Hong Kong perceptions of the visit ever since the MoU was initialled on 30 June. The Governor quickly began explaining to reliable public figures that the Prime Minister was taking a considerable domestic political risk because he believed it to be the right thing to do in order to promote Hong Kong's interests.
Lord Caithness reinforced the key messages publicly and in private discussions during his visit to Hong Kong 22-28 July.
We
All our briefing, draft speeches etc have been carefully tailored with a view to striking the right tone in Hong Kong (and here) as well as carrying forward substantive business. Hence too our efforts to see whether we can negotiate a meaty Joint Communiqué. have also thought hard throughout about presentational aspects of the visit's organisation, and we believe that the Prime Minister's willingness to include a strong Hong Kong contingent in his delegation (the Governor, Mrs Chan, Mr Hui, Mr Hoare and the interpreter, Mrs Chui) should play well in Hong Kong.
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