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Mr Galsworthy said that we
CU
or
ought
to guard against accepting a
minority view purely because we were afraid of criticism from the
minority. Summing up this part of the discussion the Secretary of
State said that the Governor should say to the Chinese that pressure
for direct elections was not being
being stimulated by us, but that the
idea was being extensively discussed and no one could foresee
control how it would settle down or turn out. If it turned out in
one particular direction it might be necessary
respond favourably.
thought to what sort of system might best suit Hong Kong's needs and
avoid the pitfalls if this did prove to be the case. The Secretary
of State added that it remained most important to
carry the Chinese
along with us in
their understanding of the situation SO that we
could work out together how to react to feeling on the ground. All
this underlined the need to approach them with maximum prudence and
caution.
and prudent to
We were naturally giving some preliminary
Visit to Hong Kong by Zhou Nan
4. The Secretary of State observed that it was becoming difficult
that Zhou Nan had not been invited officially to Hong Kong. The
Governor said that this had been put to ExCo, who had agreed that
Zhou could be invited. ExCo had, in characteristic fashion, asked
for more information about the modalities but he expected to be able
to agree in a couple of weeks that Zhou should be invited to Hong
Kong.
Visit by the Governor to Peking
5.
to
Hong
The Governor said he thought the main value of his visits Peking was to give the Chinese an opportunity to put views
put views directly
to the British side: contact between the Ambassador and the
Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council was difficult.
His visit in September had proved to be an extremely useful
mechanism in obtaining Chinese views on a variety of issues.
Secretary of State agreed, adding that it was important to avoid
too frequent visits, which might give the impression that the
Governor was going to Peking for instructions, or being summoned by
the Chinese.
The
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