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CONFIDENTIAL
HKD 213/1
PEGISTAY 1 MAY 1991
OFFICER
THETRY
23
масок
ли
Mr Morgin 12.29/4
27/4
From: A R Paul
PA
dur laken
Hong Kong Department
Date: 26 April 1991
Sir J Coles
cc: Mr Burns
Mr Baker-Bates, SAAD
DEPENDENT TERRITORIES WORK PERMIT SCHEME
1.
attached.
Thank you for your minute of 25 April. To take your para 2 first, if from the outset we publicly exempt St Helena, Hong Kong will once again feel itself the victim of discrimination. The vigilant Hong Kong media would play up the theme of a new "anti-Hong Kong" measure, particularly
in current circumstances. We may see the Hong Kong Quota as small beer; they will see its suppression as the latest manifestation of a mean bureaucratic spirit underlying our policy. The arguments in favour of little St Helena, which seem fair and sensible from London, would carry no weight
in Hong Kong.
2.
I agree (your para 1) that there can be no question of misleading Parliament. In response to an arranged PQ, Ministers need not say that they had decided on "a phase-out for all dependent territories" but that they were phasing out the present Dependent Territories' Work Permit Scheme. If they felt nervous about leaving it at that they could perhaps add that the position would be reviewed at the end of next year to consider whether the phase-out was posing significant difficulties for any dependent territory.
3. Alternatively, Ministers could tell the Home Secretary
that they had had second thoughts about Mr Waddington's
MAXAJD/1
CONFIDENTIAL