CONFIDENTIAL
Royal Instructions
4.
Hong Kong agrees with my proposals on Article 1(4) and,
apart from the reference to "Official Members" in new Clause XVI (2) and (3), to my proposals for that Clause. Hong Kong also agrees with the proposals I have made in relation to Clause XVII except
for the "mutatis mutandis" proposal for a paragraph 2. The reason given in telno 313 against this in fact gyapplicable to
the Clause as accepted and is inescapable where one seeks to
apply by reference provisions applicable to one category of
ca se to a different category. I would have thought that it
would be prudent for those who may be faced with a problem to
prefer to have some such protection as that provision.
I do not think it is a matter on which we should insist.
However
5. The only outstanding points on the Royal Instructions
therefore are points similar to that raised on the Letters
Patent with regard to the "appointed date" (Clause 1(5)) and
Clause 8 which introduces new Clauses XXIA and XXIB. We will
need to wait on Ministers' decisions on dissolution before we
can deal with the latter. If Ministers do decide that we
should make provision for dissolution, that provision will need
to be included here and will have consequences for Clause XXIB (1)
and (3) and the relevance of the date of 1 October in new
Clause XXIA. We will also need to look again at new Clause XXIA(3)
in the light of what we can find out from Hong Kong about the
rationale of extra-sessional sittings. A final issue which we
may need to face on this aspect of the Royal Instructions is the need to make a provision for an emergency session/sitting
after dissolution and before the subsequent elections;
appointed and Official Members will retain their membership after
dissolution, but we may have to do something about elected
members.
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