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CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
On the points of substance in your letter, it is now
clear to us all here that the 1995 elections will loom large
over the next year or so. We look forward to receiving the provisional timetable setting out the dates by which
decisions or action are needed. But Lord Caithness has
returned from his useful visit to Hong Kong with the message that the main political orientations (for example on how to
play the issue of the number of directly elected seats, and
whether to go to the Chinese on this issue alone or with a
package of proposals) will need to be clear by the time the
Secretary of State sees the Chinese Foreign Minister in the margins of the UNGA. This suggests to me a first collective Ministerial discussion in July, with an approach to the
Chinese in the early autumn. (But we shall need to look at
this again when we have your detailed timetable).
It will of course be necessary to take the mind of the
new Governor on all this. As a first step, we will be
preparing a note for the incoming government.
I welcome your agreement that Ministers should have a chance to comment on matters with a particular resonance at
Westminster, such as the voting system, before options are
irretrievably narrowed through consultations with the
Chinese and/or LegCo. You will want to know that the
Secretary of State, in commenting on your letter, agreed
that in the initial discussions with the Chinese the option
of some PR system of voting for Hong Kong should not be
closed off. We shall be pursuing separately with the
Secretary for Constitutional Affairs the need to give
Ministers a more political steer on the consequences for the
political groups in LegCo of the various voting systems.
CEWABH/2
CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL
/With