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Kingdom and would also seek meetings with MPs and with influential
representatives of the media.
ACCEPTABILITY
4.
Sir P Cradock said the Secretary of State had agreed with the
Chinese leaders that the draft agreement could not be amended by
Parliament but only accepted or rejected. We would therefore have
to be careful that the people of Hong Kong were given a full
opportunity to express their views about the content of an agreement before September so that we could not be accused of simply putting
an agreement to them at that stage which they had to accept or
reject. Mr Luce emphasised that this was an important matter of presentation. We would have to be careful how we solicited Hong
Kong opinion on this issue, in order to avoid both attracting Chinese criticism and giving rise to false expectations in Hong Kong of what we could achieve in the negotiations.
PARLIAMENTARY HANDLING
5.
Mr Luce said that MPs would be torn between two conflicting
interests on the Hong Kong issue: the immigration implications if something went wrong in Hong Kong and the moral responsibility of
Britain for the territory. In the context of the debate in the
House of Commons we might need to be more forthcoming on the issue of undertakings. Mr Healey had emphasised in conversation with
Mr Luce that he was particularly concerned about the erosion of British administration during the transitional period.
6. The House of Lords would probably have a debate on Hong Kong on 21 May at the proposal of Lord Fanshawe. We should lobby friendly Lords before the debate. Mr Luce would discuss with Lady Young.
7.
It was agreed that we should continue unattributable briefing
of the press, and News Department should be approached to draw up a list of responsible journalists who could be briefed.
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