CONFIDENTIAL
119
27 FEB 1998
POPADX
HKD 340/4
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
1 APR 1990
DESK OF CEO they
INDEX
PA
Action Taken
Thank you for this advanced warning.
FROM:
DATE:
CC:
A R Paul
Hong Kong Department
27 February 1990
Private Secretary
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
Mr Lidington
Mr Fraser
Mr Yeo, MP
Mr Whomersley, Legal Advisers
PS/MrMaude
1
28/2
HONG KONG ASSURANCES: OD(K) MEETING: 6 MARCH
1.
Please refer to Mr Morris' submission of 23 February,
summarising the outcome of the recent visit by officials to Hong Kong. Home Office officials are now drafting a paper for OD (K)
which they plan to side copy to us in parallel to submitting it to
the Home Secretary on 28 February. But Ministers should know
immediately that the draft paper will contain a number of proposals
on which they will need to make a view.
Secretary's own thinking:
2.
The key proposals are:
(a) Approved Secondment Scheme
These reflect the Home
The Home Secretary wishes to drop this scheme. The Governor is
opposed to the scheme if it is not additional to the 50,000
ceiling. But what has swayed the Home Secretary is his Legal
Advisers view that the scheme may open the door to judicial
review in the UK; and the fact that the scheme would rest on an
extension of the Home Secretary's existing discretionary powers
under the BNA, thereby giving rise to the possibility of
amendments to the BNA. The decision to abandon the scheme would
however be a great disappointment to some British companies in
Hong Kong.
CONFIDENTIAL