CONFIDENTIAL
general review of our Hong Kong policies. This is needed in preparation for the agreement that will have to be reached with the Chinese within the next few years on the future of Hong Kong. Recent reports on Chinese attitudes and policies including in particular secret reports, have been encouraging. We are grateful to the Governor for his recent letter on the question of land leases in the New Territories. This has been read with interest, and has been referred to the legal advisers for advice.
But we
are really looking for a more comprehensive review of policy, a review that will re-examine ab initio all our fundamental assumptions on Hong Kong and will seek to redefine our objectives, before going on to consider how best to reconcile those objectives with what we know about Chinese policies and likely objectives. We shall be replying to the Acting Governor setting out our proposals. In the meantime, although we agree that the time to start discussions with the Chinese has not yet arrived, we suspect that it may not be far off. We look forward to receiving the Governor's advice on this broader
review.
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10.
The Royal Hong Kong Police Force
The Minister may wish to express our satisfaction at the Hong Kong Government's rapid acceptance and implementation of the recommendations made by the Crane team. We particularly welcome the fact that HM Inspectorate of Constabulary are to mount regular inspections of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and that there is to be an inspection of the Hong Kong Special Branch. The Minister may also like to thank the Governor for his recent letter on the question of appointing a successor to Mr Slevin as Commissioner of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force and say that we are giving careful thought to the problem.
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11.
Immigration from China
We note that despite the repeated informal approaches to the Chinese since the beginning of the year, legal
/immigrants
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CONFIDENTIAL