CONFIDENTIAL
Background
4. Amendments to Hong Kong's constitutional documents are
required because of:
(a) the proposed changes in the composition of the Legislative
Council, arising from the 1987 review of developments in
representative government in Hong Kong; and
(b) changes in the retirement age for District Court judges,
agreed at JLG VIII.
Our intention is to submit them to the Privy Council Office by 16
March so that they can be put before HM in Council at the meeting to
be held on 23 March. The amendments relating to the composition of
the Legislative Council needs to be made at this month's meeting
of the Privy Council so as to allow sufficient time for the registration of electors before elections in September.
5. It would also be convenient for the amendments concerning
points of detail relating to the Executive and Legislative Councils.
to be considered at this meeting. The Legislative Council in Hong Kong will have an opportunity to comment on these points at the LegCo meetings of 16 and 17 March. Hong Kong do not expect LegCo to raise any objections to the proposals and we have concluded that these should be included in the amendments we are putting to the
Privy Council. In the unlikely event that LegCo do raise
objections, arrangements can be made to withdraw them before the
Privy Council meeting.
6. A description of the principal contents of the two instruments is set out in the attached Note for the Privy Council.
7. We have arranged for clean prints of the attached amendments to Additional Instructions to be available for submission to the Privy
Council.
ARR.Pam
A R Paul
CONFIDENTIAL