TNAG-2607-FCO40-3798-International-support-from-Japan-regarding-the-future-of-Hon-1992 — Page 5

L.morris. 16

CODE 18-77

Reference

50

BY FAX

16 December 1992

To: PS/GH

41

CONFIDENTIAL

TOKYO TELNO 882: HONG KONG/JAPAN

HKD 021/1

28

0

Following is text of draft letter from Sir J Coles to Ikeda. Grateful for your views deskby 170900Z. We shall then factor this into the briefing for the PUS's meeting with Kitamura on 18 December.

BEGINS

I am writing to you first of all to register our gratitude for everything that Japanese Ministers and officials have done in recent months to assist us with our policy on Hong Kong; and secondly to follow up the kind suggestion, from your Embassy here, that Japan would be prepared to speak helpfully to the Chinese in private again, if we would find this useful.

Japan is uniquely well placed to explain to China the realities of international business confidence in Hong Kong. We greatly value your many helpful interventions in the past.

We are grateful for the supportive things senior Japanese Ministers have felt able to say in public so far and would not wish them to say more. It is clear that private exchanges are likely to be far more effective in influencing China. This is particularly true at the present, when the Chinese are than usually suspicious of what they regard as attempts to "internationalise" Hong Kong. So we would be very pleased if Japanese ministers and officials could use opportunities which may arise in private contacts with China to reinforce the helpful messages which they have already delivered.

We were very pleased that Governor Patten was able to visit Japan. I know that he valued the opportunity to discuss the rationale for his constitutional proposals with senior political figures. He was keen to stress the important relationship between Hong Kong's way of life and its stability and prosperity. International business has confidence in an economic system based on independent institutions and the rule of law. It is a fact that opinion in Hong Kong now favours a modest increase in the pace of democracy. This cannot be ignored without the risk of creating stronger pressures for change which might not so readily be accommodated. In light

of developing opinion in Hong Kong, the practical arrangements for the 1995 elections had to be open and fair.

We are keenly aware that China is offended by the Governor's proposals and by the fact that he announced them before engaging in detailed discussion with the Chinese. But the

CONFIDENTIAL