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Argument
5.
Other Dependent Territories can be expected to make demands
for equivalent treatment if the amendment is carried. The simplest
way to forestall this would be for the Government to announce quickly
that they intended to move the reversal of the amendment in the Lords
or in the Commons and were confident of succeeding. However, this
may not be considered practicable in parliamentary terms and it seems
most likely that the Government would wait until the autumn in order
to see how the parliamentary situation developed. But we should not
wait until then before saying something to the dependencies if we are
to prevent them from getting locked into extreme demands for the
Government could not give similar treatment to all the dependencies.
The attached draft is the minimum that might serve as a holding
operation.
6.
See 1317
It will not of course prevent some strain in our relations
and we shall come under pressure, particularly from Hong Kong.
Leading figures in Hong Kong would see HMG's eventual reaction as
indicator of their political attitude towards the Territory at a time
when UK/Hong Kong relations are already strained against the back-
ground of uncertainty about the future. There is already irritation
over preferential treatment of the EC in the context of fees for
Overseas students. It is relevant that Sir S Y Chung, the Senior
Unofficial Member of the Hong Kong Executive Council, will be in the
United Kingdom from 18 July for the Royal Wedding and will be lunching
with Mr Ridley on 28 July.
7.
If HMG do in the end decide that the amendment cannot be
reversed, the pressure from the other dependencies would immediately
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