SECRET
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1A 2AH
H Steel Esq CMG OBE
Law Officers' Department Attorney-General's Chambers Royal Courts of Justice Strand
LONDON WC2 2LL
Telephone 01-
Filé
(56
ነ.
HER 040/
233 3184 11 FERDS2
Your reference
Pas 213
Our reference,
HKK 0401
Date
Bu 2
10 February 1982
Dear Steel
FUTURE OF HONG KONG
noted Alas otr
See (83
HICK 040/1
(215)
1981
1. Please refer to Tony Rushford's letter of 23 October 1981.
2. I thought it would be useful and Rushford agrees if we were to bring you up to date on the trend of our thoughts. In particular, we are looking at various options that might enable the UK, with China's agreement, to continue to administer Hong Kong in much the same way as at present. (For the time being we are not pursuing the idea of acting unilaterally see paragraph 7(b) of Rushford's letter).
3. In consultation with Rushford we have produced a draft paper which we are sending to our Ambassador in Peking and the Governor in Hong Kong for their comments. A copy is enclosed for your information.
4. You will have had copies of Rushford's recent minuting on the future, but you may like to have copies of some earlier minuting as follows:
HKIC 040/1 1981-
/
(222A
(230
270A
242
(260
attached to
аккотор
5.
a) Rushford's minute of 5 November 1981 to Friar;
b) My minute of 12 November 1981 to Rushford;
c) Rushford's minute of 13 November 1981 to me;
d) Rushford's minute of 16 November 1931 to me;
e) Rushford's minute of 7 December 1981 to Morris;
91
f) Rushford's paper of 9 December 1981 on the legal implications 1981
1983-3
g) my Minute of 4 January to Rushford;
h) Rushford's minute of 5 January to me.
Any comments you may care to make would be welcome. We shall be glad to discuss these matters in greater depth if you wish.
cc without encls:
Your
Die!
ст
RD Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
F Burrows Esq CMG Legal Advisers FCO
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