HKB 011/6/2
Mr Hum
PS/Mr Goodlad
Private Secretary
SECRET
FROM:
pa.
A
う
ふけて
PF Ricketts
Hong Kong Department
3011
مسانية
Confe
145.
DATE:
22 December 1993
CC:
Mr Fry, FED
Mr Culshaw, News Dept
A
B
C
HONG KONG: THE 1990 EXCHANGE OF LETTERS
1. The Financial Times carried on 17 December a long piece on Hong Kong (copy attached). It drew on a number of discussions with the Governor and was generally helpful. But there is one damaging passage (highlighted below) which quotes an unnamed senior British official as saying that the 1990 exchanges were not considered when drafting the Governor's proposals and that this was an oversight on our part.
2. Mr Goodlad asked Hong Kong to try to establish the identity of the British official concerned. Hong Kong's reply (attached) indicates that it was a British source in Hong Kong rather than London from some six months ago. But inevitably the journalist would not identify his source.
3.
The comment has not so far made much impact in the British press although we know that Ambassador Ma is using it to reinforce the case he is making, in doing the rounds of senior businessmen and others. that the Governor's proposals were a breach of previous understandings. It has, however, stirred
some interest in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong telegram sets out the press line approved by the Governor for use there. This says that the letters were formal diplomatic exchanges and therefore of course fully known to both sides and that those assisting the Governor in drawing up his package were aware of the exchanges.
4. We did refer to one of the 1990 exchanges during the summer of 1992 in researching a request from the Secretary of State to know what assurances we had given the Chinese side on the issue of convergence with the Basic Law. I quoted from this message in the annex to my minute of 3 August 1992. But officials in London, Hong Kong and Peking failed to retrieve the full set of
SECRET
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