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SECRET
Private Secretary
CC:
PS/Lord Glenarthur PS/Mr Eggar
PS/PUS
Mr McLaren
Mr Fifoot
FED
[ HONG KONG: REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT]
1. I well understand the Secretary of State's concern on this matter. We certainly do not want to be seen to be going too far in the Chinese direction. Nor should we let them know explicitly that the paper we give them is in fact the text of relevant chapters of the White Paper (though they will probably guess this to be the case given the way we handled the Green Paper).
2.
On the other hand, we are committed to letting them know how we propose to deal in the White Paper with the question of direct elections. Effectively this means letting them see a text. I see force in Mr Paul's argument that we may be best served by letting them have the full text of the relevant sections. But we should continue to describe this as an "illustrative paper" following the earlier precedent.
30 December 1987
SECRET
D H Gillmore