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pressure.
The Secretary of State would be drawn into discussion of
the detailed and controversial points of this Bill. The effect
would be mixed.
D
E
5. These is also the Chinese dimension. We intend to show them the
draft before publication. EXCO will consider the Bill on 9 January
after which an approach to the Chinese could be made. However,
Publication on 12 January would give only one or two days notice to
the Chinese. This is likely to reinforce their impression that we
are only going through the motions of consulting them in advance of
key decisions and may provoke unnecessary suspicion and hositility.
In addition, if they considered that we were deliberately giving a
high profile to publication of the Bill by announcing it during the
Secretary of State's visit, they may feel obliged to reserve their position in an unhelpful way publicly.
6. Mr Galsworthy has recommended postponement for these reasons
(UKREP JLG Telno 3). The Governor (Hong Kong telno 72) also on
balance agrees that we should postpone publication. He suggests we
should carry over discussion of the Bill in ExCo from 9 to
16 January, consulting the Chinese inbetween, which should minimise
the risk of accusations that we had deliberately delayed publication
until after the visit.
ARPaul
I agree to poorfonement.
A R Paul
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The idea y publicabil was
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