INNAT 13
SUP
6. The Governments of India and Pakistan have not until now been
involved in the worldwide lobbying exercise that we have undertaken
to restore confidence in Hong Kong. Both Governments could,
however, help if they could emphasise on appropriate occasions the importance of Hong Kong as a major international and regional
economic centre. If they could also agree to offer passports or entry certificates to members of the Indian/Pakistani community who
do not already hold foreign passports (eg, Indian, Pakistani,
Canadian, US etc), this would have three beneficial effects: it
would
i)
ii)
and
aid confidence;
strengthen our hand in persuading other countries to help;
iii) relieve HMG of the pressure of lobbying from this group.
In practice, they will not be satisfied with this outcome since what they clearly want is UK citizenship. But they have already conceded that only those without other passports have any claim for special consideration. If they are granted passports by India or Pakistan then that claim (which we in any case do not accept) will
evaporate.
DEMOCRACY
7. A Hong Kong Government White Paper of 1988 announced that, as
part of the gradual process of developing Hong Kong's representative government, 10 directly elected seats would be introduced into the legislature in 1991. The February 1989 draft of the Basic Law
allows for 15 directly elected seats in 1997. In line with the principle of convergence of the pre- and post-1997 political structures, it was intended to increase the directly elected seats
to 15 in 1995.
8. Following the Tiananmen Square incident, Hong Kong opinion wants
a faster pace of democratisation. The OMELCO Consensus which seems to be broadly representative, is pressing for 20 seats in 1991 and
MTHAPQ (5)
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