CONFIDENTIAL
B
4.
C
The Head of PRU wrote to the Clerk of the Committee on
17 August to explain that we could not give a substantive response
on the central issue of nationality because we were still working on the details of our package. Mr Maude commented at the time that, should we need to delay a reply beyond the beginning of October, we would need to square Mr David Howell.
5,
Despite much intensive work on the nationality package, we are unfortunately some way from reaching any firm conclusions. The Secretary of State and the Home Secretary have agreed that further work needs to be done, involving a visit by officials to Hong Kong, and that consideration of the subject by OD (K) will have to be deferred. The Home Office do not believe that a visit will be
possible until mid November: even if we could persuade them to go out sooner, it seems unlikely that we will be ready to make an
announcement before the New Year. Nor is it by any means certain that we would have anything to say by then on the other main recommendations in the Report (representative government and the Consulate-General).
We
6. Whilst a delay until the autumn was reasonable, the absence of a response for long after Parliament has resumed would be more difficult to justify. Mr Howell and the Members of the Committee might feel that a further indefinite delay was not acceptable. had envisaged that the Secretary of State might have a word with Mr Howell to explain the position. But there will not be an opportunity for him to meet Mr Howell until late October at the earliest, and I do not think the matter could wait until then. The attached draft letter invites him to say whether he would prefer an early reply or wait for a more substantive one.
7.
From our point of view, there is not much to choose between the two options. But it is worth bearing in mind that we are in any case due to submit to Parliament in January the Annual Report on Hong Kong. If our reply to the Committee were to appear at that time, there would inevitably be a good deal of overlap.
BIFABM2
CONFIDENTIAL