FCO_49_623_PLANNING_PAPER_ON_HONG_KONG_1976 — Page 6

LETTER

To:-

Sir Murray MacLehose GBE, KCMG, KCVO HONG KONG

Type Page 6 of 16

FROM

Mr Cortazzi Telephone No. Ext.

Department

1. · It was a great pleasure to have Denys Roberts in Londo last week. We are grateful to him (and to David Jeafferson for sparing the time and to you for releasing them to come. I hope that they found their visit as useful as we did: the whole exercise reinforces my belief that there should be more personal contact of this kind. I hope, too, that their absence from the Colony did not lead to too much embarrassing speculation in the press.

The

2. I imagine that Denys has now shown you the redraft of those sections of the Paper dealing with internal policies and relations between Britain and Hong Kong.

di Department have now tied these up and prepared a final version of the full Paper, as agreed with Denys. I would be grateful if you could let us know if there are any points with which you disagree and which we will need to thrash out during your forthcoming visit.

3. We will be submitting a copy of the Paper to

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Michael Palliser and, subject to his agreement, we will aim to submit it to the Secretary of State by the end of the month. He has, incidentally, said that he would very much like a chance to talk to you during your visit in July and this has been arranged for 4.30 on Thursday, 22 July. In this connection you will, I think, wish to see the record of Lord Goronwy-Roberts' meeting with Denys on 11 June, which will give you an insight into ministerial attitudes to the subjects raised in the Planning Paper. For the sake of completeness, I also enclose a copy of the summary record of the office meeting I held to consider the redrafts of the last two sections of the Paper and

· Annex C.

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4. I am sending a copy of this letter and its enclosure

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