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Mr Murray
RECEIVLO „/ RES SYAY NO. 51
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PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
HONG KONG:
PARLIAMENTARY QUESTION: LORD BROCKWAY
1. I submit a draft reply, notes for supplementaries and a background note to the oral Question tabled by Lord Brockway for answer on 22 November. Lord Brockway last tabled a question on Hong Kong two years ago when the subject of his
concern was child labour.
2. The proposals to which Lord Brockway refers were first
made in a letter which three elected members of the Urban
Council in Hong Kong sent to Lord Goronwy-Roberts at the end of June. Lord Goronwy-Roberts replied on 1 August pointing out that, while HMG would like to see appropriate moves made at the right time towards more representative government, the problem was to decide what is appropriate and when. the meantime patience and caution were necessary to avoid undermining confidence in Hong Kong.
In
3. The Councillors were apparently not satisfied with this reply, and they therefore wrote to the Secretary of State on 16 October, repeating their four proposals. Unfortunately, the top copy of this letter seems to have gone astray in the
post, since it has never reached the FCO. We have however
just received a copy of it from Mr Stan Newens MP, one of several people to whom the Councillors appear to have sent copies.
4. It is not clear whether Lord Brockway's Question has been stimulated by the original exchange of correspondence between the Councillors and Lord Goronwy-Roberts (which, of course, took place during the summer recess, so that no opportunity to raise it would have occurred before now), or whether he
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