SECRET
82A)
Mr Donald
HITE
Lal B
340/1
RECEIVED IN RIMNEY NO. 51 3 - MAR 1981
Gegk OFFICER INDEX
PA
830.3.
REGISTRY Action Taken
Pine 3013
1. We hope to meet Home Office officials very shortly to discuss the Secretary of State's minute to Mr Whitelaw.
2.
We shall at that meeting do everything possible to get the Governor what he wants and not abandon our attempt to get changes in the Bill without seeking fresh instructions from our Ministers.
3. But as I mentioned to you yesterday, we shall doubtless find that the Home Office are as worried about the size of the commitment as they are about whether it is expressed in legislative or political declaration terms.
4.
The Secretary of State, when we saw him the other day, was obviously thinking in terms of a small number, significantly smaller than that implied by the Governor and Hong Kong officials generally. I may be lacking in imagination but I still cannot think how to bridge this gap without creating a dangerously false impression.
5. All this (procedural aims and numbers to be covered should come out in the wash at the meeting with Home Office officials). Thereafter, having consulted our Ministers, we may have to begin the process of educating the Governor.
6. Meanwhile I attach a minute by Mr Jones covering some of these aspects and also raising the very pertinent problem of assurances and confidence in terms of amended naturalisation provisions in the Bill. Applications for naturalisation from the Hong Kong categories we are discussing would inevitably be refused by the Secretary of State except in the context of an emergency.
17/18
17 February 1981
cc:
Mr Clift
Mr Jones
Mi Jones
Thank you.
Jones
W J Adams
you of 9/2
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We discursed These issues Voday. The
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be helpful here in finding
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Mr. James Adams.
SECRET
Astmald
7872