RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
1 6 NOV 1984
DESK OFFICER
INDEX
PA
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM:
DATE:
Mr. Brufus 48 Вибил
to sel
then pa.
A C GALSWORTHY .
15 NOVEMBER 1984
16/11
99
istu
Sir P Cradock is m
Private Secretary
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The
Mr Godsworthy, Mki)
Thank you. Harety, of stake would like
to see how His provisio
Cc:
PS/Mr Luce
PS/PUS
Mr Darwin, Legal Advisers
Dr Wilson
Mr Burrows, Legal Advisers
books in He drah- Bill. the has noted Mr Burrows' view.
HONG KONG BILL:
INSTRUCTIONS TO PARLIAMENTARY COUNSEL
?
Relach 15/10
B
1. The Secretary of State's two comments on the draft Instructions
to Counsel mentioned in paragraph one of your minute of 13 November
were taken into account in the final version of the Instructions
which were dispatched on 13 November.
A 2. The Secretary of State also asked whether our proposal for
modification of statutes should be dealt with by an enabling clause,
subject only to anulment procedures was the usual course in such cases. As you will have seen from Mr Burrows' minute of 12 November
the Cyprus Act of 1960 appears to offer a suitable precedent in
which such Orders in Council were subject to anulment procedures.
Essentially however it is a political judgment as to whether
Parliament is likely to accept anulment procedures or to insist on
affirmative procedures. I believe that parliamentary attention will
focus on the nationality provisions of the Hong Kong Bill and there
is unlikely to be great parliamentary interest in the largely
technical measures involved in the modification of statutes. I
therefore recommend that we should opt for anulment procedures in
the first instance but if during the passage of the Bill there is parliamentary pressure for affirmative procedures we could
accomodate this since the modification of statutes aspect of the
Bill is not essential for ratification. But I hope this will not be
necessary: there may be a large number of modifications of statutes,
CONFIDENTIAL
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