氏
representative government.
The Home Office is reluctant to predict
when the nationality package might be finalised but our present strategy is to make an announcement a decent interval after the
to Hong Kong visit of Their Royal Highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales,
tof
11-12 November, and a similar decent interval before the Secretary
of State's visit in January. Should the package slip, we may have
to face the prospect of delaying the announcement and our formal response to the FAC report until the New Year. In these
circumstances,
we should need confirmation that Mr Howell is content
to wait potentially that long for a reply.
5. If on balance Mr Howell would prefer an interim reply, this
could be produced in short order. We would propose to base this on
the attached paper, which gives our commentry in note form on the
recommendations of the FAC report.
A R Paul