CONFIDENTIAL
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RECLIVED FLAT TRY No.52 18 MAR 1975
HKK 3/548/2/
Mr Male
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
HONG KONG: LETTER TO LORD GORONWY-ROBERTS
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Mr Brook Bernacchi wrote to Lord Goronwy-Roberts on
16 January enclosing a memorandum from the Reform Club of Hong Kong which the Club subsequently released to the Hong Kong press.
2.
Following Lord Goronwy-Roberts's approval of the recommendation in Mr Stuart's submission of 17 February, Mr Stuart wrote to the Governor of Hong Kong on 21 February enclosing a draft personal reply from Lord Goronwy-Roberts to Mr Bernacchi. The Governor has replied by telegram (Hong Kong telno. 222), suggesting that, in accordance with normal Dependent Territories practice, the substantive reply to the Reform Club memorandum should issue from himself. He has submitted for Lord Goronwy-Roberts's consideration two draft letters, one a personal reply which Lord Goronwy-Roberts could send to Mr Bernacchi and the other a formal and more substantive reply which he himself would address, on the Minister's instructions, to the Reform Club (Hong Kong telegrams nos. 223 and 224). The Governor also suggests that the formal reply should be rather shorter than the draft previously approved by Lord Goronwy-Roberts and, in particular, that it should be less forthcoming on the possibilities of constitutional reform.
3.
The correct way of dealing with representations of this kind is described in paragraph 4 of Chapter 3 of Dependent Territories Departmental Practice, the handbook of Office Procedures on all matters relating to the administration of the Dependent Territories. Under this, we should strictly speaking have sent Mr Bernacchi's letter to the Governor with the request that he inform Mr Bernacchi of the correct procedure for submitting a petition, which would have been for him to have sent his communication unsealed through the Governor.
CONFIDENTIAL
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