CONFIDENTIAL
(b) the Secretary of State agrees to invite the ExCo members to a meal, in addition to having his usual office meeting
with the Governor.
Background
3.
The Governor of Hong Kong will be in London from
5-8 December in order to attend the TDC dinner on Thursday 6
December, at which the Prime Minister will be speaking. Several senior members of ExCo including Baroness Dunn, who is Chairman of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council, Mr Allen Lee and Mr Willie Purves are also likely to be in
London for this occasion. The Governor has suggested that this might be an opportunity for all of them to call on the
Prime Minister. The Governor originally mentioned this idea
B to Sir P Cradock and Mr Powell after his call on the Prime
Minister on 28 June.
Argument
4. It is a long time since a group of ExCo members met the Prime Minister. The last occasion was before the signing of the Joint Declaration when it had become the practice for a group of unofficial ExCo members, accompanied by the
Governor, to call on the Prime Minister from time to time.
Recently the Prime Minister has seen only one or two senior
members of ExCo. Baroness Dunn and Mr Allen Lee called on
the Prime Minister together in June 1989 and again in January of this year, and Baroness Dunn also met the Prime
Minister on 1 March. Mr Purves will be seeing the Prime Minister on 10 November but in his capacity as Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank not as a member of ExCo.
5.
It is very unusual for several members of ExCo to be in
London at the same time as the Governor. It therefore
offers a rare opportunity for a group of ExCo members, accompanied by the Governor, to brief the Prime Minister on recent developments. In Hong Kong terms such a meeting
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