Reference..
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Mr. Carter
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We have now received formal approval from Buckingham Palace and from Kensington Palace for according the title "Royal" to the Hong Kong Police and Auxiliary Police Forces and for Princess Alexandra to accept appointment as honorary Commandant General of the two Forces. We are accordingly now in a position to proceed with the arrangements for the consequential announcement which is to be made by the Prime Minister in the form of an arranged Parliamentary Question to be put down by Lieutenant Commander Maydon.
2.
As I see it, the following steps will now have to be taken:
(a) the preparation of the draft Question and Answer, together with Notes for Supplementaries;
(b) clearance with the Governor of the proposed Question and Answer: you consider that this clearance should take place after agreement on the format of the Question and Answer has been reached in the FCO byt before any communication is sent to the Prime Minister's Office;
(c) despatch of the proposed Question and Answer, together with Notes for Supplementaries, to the Prime Minister's Office;
(a)
presumably the Prime Minister's Office will clear the final form of the Question and Answer with Lieutenant Commander Maydon, and arrange with him the date of the announcement;
(e)
inform the Governor of the approved form of Question and Answer and of the date that the announcement is to be made;
(f) inform Kensington Palace similarly in response to the request that they may be so informed.
The
3. As regards (a), I attach a draft Question and Answer, together with Notes for Supplementaries. Prime Minister has informed Lieutenant Commander Maydon that he intends to make the announcement at the end of Questions: I understand from the Parliamentary Office that this means that the Answer may be a little longer than is customary for Parliamentary Questions and that the time for Supplementaries will be longer. On a matter of this nature, the Questions could range fairly widely and there is the possibility that some of them will be hostile. I have endeavoured to cover as much ground as possible in the Notes for Supplementaries. It will be noticed that the reply has been drafted in the form of an arranged Question and an arranged Supplementary Question. I understand from the Parliamentary Office that there is no procedural objection to this. The reason for suggesting this is in order to bring out the fact that the Hong Kong Police Force was formed about a century and a quarter ago. It would be difficult to include this information in the substantive reply without making that reply inordinately long. It will be noted from Hong Kong telegram no. 193 that the Governor would prefer the announcement not to lay too