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PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL
Ar Ham's advice is of a different order to that Pelkning. I suggest it is
Mr. Pattern,
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MR PATTEN'S INAUGURATION SPEECH
To discuss
with MDEEL.
FROM: CO Hum
DATE: 29 June 1992
1. Because of my absence in Hong Kong and Peking I have only just caught up with the draft text of Mr Patten's inauguration speech (as contained in FCO telno 1016 to Hong Kong). I hope it is not too late to offer two comments, one particular and one general. Both derive from my very recent exposure to Hong Kong and to the murkier side of its political psyche.
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2. The particular point relates to the tribute in the speech to Lord Wilson. It is eloquent and of course very much deserved. But I think its language could have one or two unintended echoes in Hong Kong. It is quite reasonable to refer to Lord Wilson's career in a broader sense. But the sentence in question can be distorted by selective quotation to read, "as Governor ... Lord Wilson has done as much as any man to strengthen the bonds between Britain and China." In other words it can be misquoted to support the old allegation that Lord Wilson, like other Foreign Office Sinologists, places the most weight on relations between Britain and China even at the expense of Hong Kong. I think it might be safer to refer more narrowly to Lord Wilson's achievements as Governor and his service to the people of Hong Kong, without placing this in the wider context of Sino-British relations.
3. The reference to Lord Wilson's career as "diplomat and scholar" could also be misinterpreted as chiming with the criticism that as Governor he has been too much of an academic and not sufficiently open to other parts of the Hong Kong community. If this sounds far-fetched, I should point out that the reference, in Mr Henry Keswick's speech to the Dragon Boat Dinner, to Lord Wilson's academic credentials was certainly not intended as a compliment.
4. The general point about the speech links in to a current of
I was speculation which is doing the rounds in Hong Kong. warned that it was being said that Mr Patten's overriding commitment was to his political career; that his time in Hong Kong was no more than a preparation for his return to the political scene in London; and that he might not serve until 1997 if he was needed back in Westminster. These suspicions were apparently voiced in a television discussion programme by Emily Lau, an independent LegCo member close to the United down that Democrats, and other LegCo members on the programme took up the
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same thought. There were equally poisonous rumours just before the present Governor arrived in Hong Kong, to the effect that he had done a deal with Mrs Thatcher whereby his service as Governor was no more than a prelude to a senior Ambassadorial Ms Lau, then a journalist, had a hand in giving
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PERSONAL & CONFIDENTIAL
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