FCS/84/261
LORD PRIVY SEAL
RE
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK048/31
STRY
10 OCT 1984
MISTRY
Taken
FED GRISWO News Dept
Parliamentary Unit
Hong Kong Dept 12 Parts
& PS
си
งา
was reew.
PS Lady Young Mr Powell PS/ Mr Luce PS/Mr. Renton PS/PUS Sir. P. Cradock Sir W. Harding Sir J. Freeland mr. Houston
Future of Hong Kong: Timing of House of Commons Debate
Cutro
1. As you will know from my Private Secretary's letter of
20 September, I hope to make a statement to the House of the
draft agreement on the future of Hong Kong when Parliament
resumes. Much has happened while the House has been in
recess, and I expect you will agree that it is right that I
should bring MPs up-to-date. In the statement I would need
to
to be able, if the point was raised (as is quite likely),
indicate the approximate date of the full debate which the
House will hold on the agreement. This would help reduce pressure which might otherwise be brought to bear for an earlier discussion of Hong Kong. We need in any case to take
a decision on the approximate date fairly soon, in order to
allow planning of the publication of the reports on opinion in
Hong Kong and of the arrangements for signature of the agreement.
2. The period of time in which the debate can take place is a
short one. It must be before the House rises for the Christmas
recess in order to allow time for signature of the agreement before the end of the year. We have undertaken to the Chinese
to meet that timetable. I should not like to leave the debate
too late in case it should fall victim to other essential items
of Parliamentary business. On balance I think any date later
than the week beginning 3 December would be too late. On the
other hand the debate cannot be earlier than this because of
the need first to publish the report of the assessment unit in
Hong Kong on local opinion on the agreement and the report of
the monitors whom I have appointed to observe the work of the
assessment unit. For practical reasons, these reports cannot
be published until the latter part of the week beginning
26 November.
CONFIDENTIAL
/3.