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SECRETARY
NTI
a PS
PS/LPS BS/FUS Sir E. Youde Mr. Adams
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(391A)
Hele 340/1
EIVED IN REGISTRY NO.
12 OCT 1981
DESK OFICER
LORD PRIVY SEAL
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و امید
PA
14.10.
REGISTRY
Action Taken
pas 15/10
Thank you for your minute of 2 October.
389A
See (397)
397A
They are of
Even (413
I do understand the difficulties over Hong Kong. course the same difficulties as persuaded us earlier this year to make the major concession of adding clause 4 to the Bill. earlier, it was pressure from Hong Kong which led us to adopt the title, citizen of the British Dependent Territories, which now appears in the Bill and which was much preferred to British Overseas Citizen.
I am afraid that I cannot agree to offer a further concession at this stage. There is so far no Opposition or backbench amendment which is relevant. It is too late to table our own amendment for Report Stage: it would be too clearly seen as an afterthought and would be easily exposed as showing that we were again yielding to pressure from Hong Kong.
I am influenced in particular by the likelihood that a further concession would be extremely damaging to our efforts to persuade the Commons to disagree to the Gibraltar amendment. Such a concession would give the impression that Hong Kong had been compensated for the Gibraltar amendment, and so make the Commons less ready to disagree to it. The Hong Kong lobby in the Commons would be less likely to oppose the Gibraltar amendment if they saw that it had already led to a further concession for Hong Kong.
I am sorry not to be more helpful, but really feel we have gone as far as we can.
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7
October 1981
Page 60Page 61