CONFIDENTIAL
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3.
Mr. X had "ranted and raved" about the Governor's
address, had attributed to him the barest political motives,
had claimed that even the FCO (citing Cradock, Donald, Wilson)
opposed the Governor, and had claimed that the Governor had
asked to meet him but that he had refused. By the end of the
conversation Mr. X had however agreed to a meeting. Hotung
claimed that Mr. X would be coming to Hong Kong in the first week of September. He, Hotung, would be arranging for this message to be passed to the Governor. He was clearly determined not to reveal any more to me, and reiterated that this was private between us. I gave him my undertaking.
4.
In subsequent conversation he revealed himself to be
under the illusion that the FCO was at odds with the Governor.
I hope I convinced him that, whatever some retired FCO officials thought, the FCO and HMG were at one with the
Governor. He evinced surprise.
5.
Other unrelated points which came up: he understood on the grapevine that Japanese companies (Mitsubishi and another) had just suffered a couple of very major losses in the Pearl River Delta as a result of the current clampdown; he had also
heard that Chinese bank officials had been summoned back to
Peking today to account for all the illicit cross-border
transactions going on he mentioned innumerable unnumbered
accounts in the Standard Chartered Bank as an example.
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Comment
6.
More and more extraordinary. Unless his message to
the Governor is considerably less tortuous and opaque, there is no way that one could recommend pursuing this lead.
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