TNAG-2769-FCO40-3986-Hong-Kong-and-the-media-interviews--press-briefings-and-the--1994 — Page 166

11LB 30111

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NIF 2 3/11.

1. Gon / Mr Culshaw

Ms Rosemary Righter

2.

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192

News I

lundered why the Times had.

Some barmy lately

My Man's Miss Sample 24/4

I had a discussion yesterday about the talks with

Ms Righter, the chief leader writer of "The Times", who is

Since I gather she is calling later this el visiting Hong Kong.

(

week on the Governor and some other members of the Ad Hoc Group, 23/

I thought it might be useful if I recorded some details of our conversation.

2-

I found Ms Righter a difficult interlocutor.

She

seemed determined not to let her own prejudices be sullied by

She constantly interrupted, sometimes to rational discussion.

At no point did she make any obvious

make insulting remarks. effort to listen to what I was saying, except in so far as she detected opportunities for distorting it into ammunition for her next burst of hectoring.

3.

Although Ms Righter's own interventions were lengthy and frequent, they were never sufficiently coherent to make her

But during the course of our position entirely clear.

conversation it emerged that the following opinions were prominent in her thinking:

We should probably never have agreed to negotiate with

Having China on the Governor's original proposals. entered into negotiations, we should not have allowed the Chinese to string them out for so long.

Ms Righter appeared to think that this had happened because "Foreign Office sinologists" (among whose number she seemed to include me) had got Hong Kong policy back within their clutches, and saw the talks as another ideal opportunity to sell Hong Kong down the river to the Chinese.

CONFIDENTIAL