From: Lord Wilson of Tillyorn GCMG
香港總督府
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
p.a. Political Stration (19
GOVERNMENT HOUSE
HONG KONG
MAR 01/3
21 April 1992
Mr Jass
Miss Some 24/14
Mr Stre
zy
in
2414 23/10
attaches to
Jagua BS/M, Goodland
SJ Goles
Mr Burns ofr
Very interesting: I will draw a Are
Rickett Minute 21/4 for my note to the Secretary of State for
Hong Kong Political Situation:
The Budget
Alan Paul kindly sent me a copy of his letter to you about the Budget and how its handling by LegCo reflects the changing political scene here.
next week's
discussions
Alan Paul certainly gives a fair account of the general lines of the Budget issue and what it reveals about the changed relationship between the Administration and LegCo. I would only wish to add two points.
First, the desire of the Co-Operative Resources Centre (CRC) to enhance their own political reputation. By nature and background they are, or ought to be, the party of stability. But, as Alan Paul points out, they are desperately anxious to achieve what they see as being credibility in the eyes of the potential electorate. They are obsessed with the activities of the UDHK and how to counter or upstage them. Many of their political actions come not from a coherent political philosophy of their own, but as a reflection of what the UDHK either have done or might do. They want recognition. Thus, in the Budget discussions, it was not enough for Hamish Macleod to do a great deal to meet what they said had been their concerns in terms of commitments to an immediate effort to deal with housing concerns of the "sandwich class" and to address their tax concerns next vear. They wanted, but failed to get, recognition that any moves made by the Financial Secretary were in response to pressures from the CRC and nobody else. They were greatly upset that Hamish Macleod announced publicly the sort of moves he
Palett
22/0