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Letters Patent". However, the fact of the matter is
that Bills passed by the legislature do not become law until
the Governor has given his assent. This he could clearly
refuse to do. The argument therefore as to whether this Act should be amended rests on whether it would be politically worse to remove this potential power of the legislature or for the Governor to come under pressure to refuse to assent to a Bill which had been passed by the legislature. You have previously made the comment that this is a matter which the Chinese were concerned about and one which you think we may have raised with them. I have asked our Research and Analysis Department to review the papers to see whether they can find anything to suggest that we have made any commitment to the Chinese to take any action on this law. They have not been able to find anything.
7. Given that these issues were ventilated at the highest
level in 1985, and that Hong Kong have kept a consistent line in our recent discussions with them, I see little point in going through the motions of minuting to the Secretary of
State.
21 June 1990
Mill Star
M V Stone
Hong Kong Department
WH311
270 2651
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