PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
Reflecting on ways of encouraging a more constructive contribution from Martin Lee, the Secretary of State commented on the value of a pattern of meetings between you and Martin Lee (and other leaders of significant groups within LegCo.) You may well already make a practice of meetings with leaders of the LegCo groups. The Secretary of State was clear that the question of how such meeting were arranged, and their frequency, were entirely for you. I think that the sort of model he had in mind was the occasional meetings which Prime Ministers hold with Leaders of the Opposition. Clearly there are important differences in the case of Hong Kong, but it would be interesting to know whether you already operate some system on these lines, or whether something like it would be feasible.
The 1995 LegCo elections
We took the Secretary of State through the main problem areas: the pressure for more directly elected seats in 1995; Chinese pressure for convergence between the arrangements for the 1995 elections and the Basic Law; and the current review of electoral arrangements including Chinese opposition to lowering the voting age and to a boundary/electoral commission. The Secretary of State showed interest in the timetable for decision-making on these issues. We said (recalling earlier correspondence with you) that we thought that the latest time for decisions here would be the end of 1993, and that some points would have to be decidedd earlier, to allow arrangements to be in place in time for the District Board elections in September 1994. The Secretary of State was inclined to think that this timetable could be pushed back if necessary and we undertook to check the point with you. I suspect (having now looked back at the papers, eg your telno 3450 of 1991) that in fact you will need decisions from us well before the end of 1993 if arrangements such as boundaries and electoral registers are to be in place for the September 1994 D3 elections, but I would welcome your thoughts on that.
On the specific question of when Ministers should fulfil their commitment to go back to the Chinese on increasing the number of directly-elected seats in 1995, the Secretary of State was clear that now was not the right time to do this. But he concluded that he should tell the Prime Minister that the issue would have to come to Cabinet for the first time probably around the end of 1992, to allow time for an approach to the Chinese to be made and decisions to be taken during 1993. We noted that there were two main options.
MATAAS
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
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