CONFIDENTIAL
ale
116
MEB 040/2
FROM: CO Hum
3 JUNIOR!
Hong Kong Department
DATE:
3 June 1988
Mr Gillmore
PS/Lord Glenarthur
CC:
Mr McLaren
Mr Fifoot, Legal Advisers
P RU
HONG KONG: HOUSE OF LORDS DEBATE: 10 JUNE 1988
1.
Lords
I submit Lord Glenarthur's briefing for next week's House of
debate on Hong Kong.
2.
I fear that the briefing has to cover quite a lot of ground.
We expect the debate to focus on the Basic Law. But to spare
Chinese sensitivities we arranged with the opposition that the
motion should be couched in rather more general terms, referring to
the implementation of the Joint Declaration. Lord Glenarthur's
opening statement covers correspondingly wider ground. In practice almost any Hong Kong issue can be related to the Joint Declaration. Even one which cannot (for example Vietnamese boat people) might
well be raised in the debate. We have to be prepared to cover the
whole waterfront.
3.
A
(i)
B
C
(ii)
(iii)
(iv)
The briefing is arranged as follows:
the opening statement. I have aimed for 15 minutes, but it may be a little long; in case it is, I have indicated in square brackets passages which could be jettisoned;
opening and closing passages for the wind-up speech;
a wide range of defensive modules. These deal in most detail
with the Basic Law, but we have also tried to cover every
other issue likely to be raised.
a separate folder containing background papers on the Basic
CONFIDENTIAL