//
4.24/8
станок вени и на
Sir P Crady
Private Secretary
SECRET
cc:
FROM:
Mr Gatswathy
Fu
A C GALSWORTHY, HKD
DATE: 24 AUGUST 1984
ник 040 153
RECEIVED IN
- 3 SEP 1984
DAJK OFFICEK
PS/M Luce.
PS PUS
PA
JAK 16 A
Sit I Freeland
Sir W Harding
Mr Goulden, News Dept
Mr Elliott, FED
Soken
6
Mr Bacon, Parliamentary Unit Mr Walker, Research Dept
FUTURE OF HONG KONG: LEGISLATION
PROBLEM
1. To seek the agreement in principle of the Lord President and the
Leader of the House to the enactment of legislation about Hong Kong
in order to be able to ratify the agreement with China by July 1985.
RECOMMENDATION
2. I recommend that the Secretary of State write to the Lord
President of the Council (as Chairman of QL) and to the Leader of the
House in the terms of the attached drafts.
A
BACKGROUND AND ARGUMENT
3. The Chinese are pressing us to put forward a date for ratification
of the agreement for inclusion in the penultimate paragraph of the
Joint Declaration. We have made it clear to them that it will be a
matter of months rather than the 30 days they first proposed.
4. On this point the Legal Advisers have pointed out a serious problem with the text of the agreement as it stands, which would commit
us to exchanging instruments of ratification by a specific date.
Since this would commit Parliament to passing the legislation by a Specific separate date, they would regard a clause in this form as
unconstitutional. On the other hand it is clear that there will be
major difficulties with the Chinese if we decline to name a date, or
SECRET
seek