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Government should be delayed until a formal reply is given by
London.
6. The Governor has recommended that, if possible, delegations of
this nature should be less readily received by Ministers or officials
in the FCO. He accepts that this could be difficult and that in
some cases petitioners must be seen. However he has pointed out
that when this happens it would be helpful if some kind of short
statement could be issued to the press, essentially for use in Hong
Kong, which could provide a refutation of the points made by the
petitioners. Otherwise, they could say that they had been received
with sympathy and that their proposals were under consideration,
thus implying that the Hong Kong Government's actions might be over-
ridden.
7. I am sure that these groups should be seen very sparingly by
Ministers.
It will be necessary to consider each case on its merits.
However, a reasonable general rule might be that:
(a) a Minister should receive them if the call is requested on their
behalf by an MP and the MP wishes to accompany them;
(b) groups accompanied by an Unofficial Member of the Executive or
Legislative Council should be seen either by a Minister or an
Under-Secretary;
(c) the Head of the Hong Kong and General Department should see the
visitors if they are accompanied by a Member of the Urban Council
or someone of equivalent status;
(d) anyone else should be seen by the Assistant or Head of the Hong
Kong Section.
8.
A case in point is the Wanderers' Association, a pro-Taiwan group
who are campaigning against the Hong Kong Government's new and
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/stricter