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Hong Kong: Papers for OD (K) Meeting
The Secretary of State has looked again at the two papers which you submitted on 22 October, and has also seen the comments of Mr Renton (Mr Westmacott's minute of 23 October). As you know, the meeting of OD (K) will not take place before 10 November.
You will wish to study the Secretary of State's manuscript comments on both papers.
On the Governor/Chief Executive paper, the Secretary of State has said that he is more in favour of devolution than of delegation: the former sounds less recoverable, and does more to establish the independence of the Chief Executive. In either case the powers can if necessary be taken back.
The Secretary of State's main comment on this paper is that it should be presented more positively, to point in favour of Option b. This might be achieved by a structure of the following kind :
- what do we want for Hong Kong? Can it be achieved?
After 1997 we want our man, with our powers, selected by our method.
The best way to achieve this is to cover all three aspects under our Review 1997, rather than risking a sudden break in 1997.
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