CONFIDENTIAL
FM HONG KONG
TO DESKBY 18O9OOZ FCO
TELNO 1899
OF 180428Z DECEMBER 93
INFO DESKBY 18050OZ PEKING
CONFIDENTIAL
VANCE COPY
167431 MDADAN 1740
PERSONAL FOR PS/MR GOODLAD FROM DINHAM, GOVERNMENT HOUSE
YOUR TELNO 1076 (not to Peking): FT ARTICLE ON HONG KONG
Hanson has spoken again to Holberton about the identity of the "senior British official" who is quoted in Holberton's FT article of 17 December as talking about the 1990 exchange of letters. Holberton was only prepared to say that this was a senior British official speaking in Hong Kong about six months ago; that it was definitely not a permanent Hong Kong official; and that the story was definitely not sourced from London.
2. We will be working here on a detailed defensive line on the exchanges issues, which we will clear with HKD. We will need to ensure that the line is consistent with the various statements and comments which have been made in London and Hong Kong over the last year or so. The Governor and Secretary of State may be pressed on the issue at their FAC appearances next month.
3. We are already receiving a good deal of press interest in this issue. To deal with this, we have needed to expand the holding line you agreed last night with Hanson (your para 2). Our revised Line, with which the Governor is content, is as follows:
-
The Letters were formal diplomatic exchanges and therefore
of course fully known to both sides.
Those assisting the Governor in drawing up his package included those who had been involved at the time of the exchanges, and before.
of the exchanges.
So they were of course aware of the
- But the important point is that they did not/not
constitute an agreement on key issues affecting the 1994/95 elections.
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