CONFIDENTIAL
Legislative Council. He argued that Mr Newbigging had a long record of public service, that he himself was reasonably enlightened on social welfare questions and said that the Chinese People's Government themselves expected that heads of British concerns in Hong Kong should be represented on LegCo. The Governor further proposed that Mr Michael Sandberg, the Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, should be appointed to ExCo where his financial and banking expertise was needed. He would probably be put in to replace Mr Sydney Gordon. I told the Governor that in my view it was unlikely that such proposals would be received with approval in London, certainly not unless they could be balanced by simultaneous appointments that were obviously representing more enlightened view points and more representative areas of the community.
6. The Governor asked and I agreed that the content and existence of the paper that I left with him should be kept very confidential. Mr Stewart and I assured him that we had not mentioned it to anyone in Hong Kong other than himself and that I would ensure that its existence was not mentioned in any correspondence with Hong Kong.
7.
I shall be submitting separately on the various steps covered in this minute.
21 April 1978
cc:
PS/Lord Goronwy-Roberts
Mr Cortazzi
Mr Murray
Mr Hurst
2
CONFIDENTIAL
JAB Stewart
Hong Kong & General Dept