6978
SECRET AND PERSONAL
File
30
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
18 May 1983
Sir E Youde GCMG MBE
Governor and Commander in Chief
HONG KONG
Dear Teddy,
MKK040/1 pr
RECOVER M
1 8 MAY 1983
INDEX
IN
1CM1915
INCREASED PARTICIPATION BY THE PEOPLE OF HONG KONG IN GOVERNMENT
1.
Thank you for your letter of 18 April. It was very helpful to have your thoughts on this sensitive subject.
2.
At this stage, we have no substantive comments except to say that what you have in mind seems to us to be very much on the right lines. As you say, careful consideration will have to be given to the timing of the various stages and to their
In presentation, both within Hong Kong and to the Chinese. this context, you refer in paragraph 20 of the paper to 'explaining' changes to Peking. Obviously the way in which this was done would be important and would depend on the nature and scale of the new arrangement.
3.
One very small point. We are slightly puzzled by the arithmetic in paragraph 11 of the paper. Firstly, the number of proposed LEGCO members seems to add up to 60 rather than 50.
4. I should welcome the opportunity to discuss this with you when I am in Hong Kong.
Yours
Dick
R D Clift
Hong Kong and General Department
cc: Sir P Cradock KCMG
HM Ambassador
PEKING
SECRET AND PERSONAL