FCS/90/034
Ma Ga W16/2
MR Morris (OR)
pa.
нко 340140
DES:
INDEX
REGISTRY
1 1 APR 1990
REGISTRY
CER
PA
Action Taken
22/2
3
HKD
98
Xps
Ps / Mr Mande
Mr Mclaren Mr Gillmore Miss Spencer
Mr McQuade,
NTD
Mr Montgomery, MUD M. Whamersley, Legal
PCCEN
HOME SECRETARY
Hong Kong Assurances
4
Advisers
Mr Lidington
AN 160/2
1.
Thank you for your letter of 31 January. I am glad that the discussions with the Hong Kong Government are generally going well. I hope that further progress will be made during the visit which Home Office and FCO officials are making to Hong Kong.
2. It will not be easy to square the circle over numbers. It is already clear that it will not be possible to accommodate existing holders of assurances together with sufficient people in the disciplined services and elsewhere in the public service within the 50,000, while still maintaining our preferred 2:1 ratio between the
private and public sectors. I nevertheless agree that we must stick to the 50,000 heads of household figure. The opponents of the Bill would quickly seize on and exploit any indications that 50,000 was not a limit. The right solution may be to modify the ratio, but we should be in a better position to take a view on that when officials have returned from Hong Kong.
3. I have taken note of your comments on the approved secondment scheme and on the question of eligibility. I shall await officials' recommendations on these points.
4. I am copying this minute to the Prime Minister and other
members of OD(K), the Secretary of State for Employment, the Attorney General, the Chief Whip, Sir Percy Cradock and Sir Robin
Butler.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
16 February 1990
मिन
(DOUGLAS HURD)