CONFIDENTIAL
Redacted under FOI Exemption S 27 (1)
Redacted under FOI Exemption S 40 and S 41
as Acting Chief Secretary either this week or next.
5.
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For the future, there will be a need to reconsider the
timing of Sir D Akers-Jones's retirement. He himself is·
anxious to provide continuity and advice for the new Governor.
Decisions on whether or how this should be done will of course
have to await the appointment of a new Governor and will be
affected by the timing of his arrival in Hong Kong. One
possibility is that Sir D Akers-Jones could move from being
Acting Governor to "Deputy to the Governor", a position which
is provided for in the Letters Patent and which can be given
whatever responsibilities the new Governor thinks fit.
Policy Implications
6. The 1987 Review.
that we face a very
difficult period next year over the 1987 Review, with a
substantial risk of serious confrontation with the Chinese.
We discussed informally with Sir D Akers-Jones, Mr Ford and
Mr Boyd whether Sir E Youde's untimely death gave us an
opportunity of escaping from the impending dilemma by either
postponing the Review for a year or stretching out the process
of consultation: both devices would be designed to fit better
than the present timetable with Chinese timing on the draft
Basic Law. Clearly there might be heavy political costs in such a policy: it could all too easily be portrayed as
reneging on a commitment. Such a different approach could
probably only be attempted if there was some groundswell of opinion advocating such a course. This is not apparent at
present; nor indeed would one expect it so soon. EXCO's
present mood is in the contrary direction.
7.
The Acting Governor will send us a telegram in about a week giving further views on this point.
CONFIDENTIAL
18.