Mr Ricketts, HKD
CONFIDENTIAL
Hong Kong
The Secretary of State held a meeting this morning to consider the issues raised in the paper submitted under your minute of 4 February, as well as your submission of 6 February about the visit next month of the Chinese Foreign Minister.
The main conclusions were:
Hong Kong Political Developments
The meeting considered the issues raised in paragraph 9 of your paper and, particularly, the question of whether the Governor should seek to appoint some liberal LegCo members on to ExCo. The general view was that despite the important changes to the way in which LegCo and ExCo operate, which have taken place since the LegCo elections, the system still worked. It was agreed therefore that there was no case for taking action now. The Secretary of State recognised, however, that the next Governor would want to consider the option of introducing liberal members on to ExCo. The key question would be whether the gain would be worth the price. There was no single opinion on this. Lord Caithness saw some advantage in bringing into ExCo one or two of the UDHK, but not Martin Lee. Sir John Coles, on the other hand, thought that the price to be paid would be heavier than the possible gain.
The Secretary of State did think it important that the present Governor should establish a pattern of meetings with LegCo leaders, including Martin Lee. He hoped that the Governor would be able to treat Mr Lee in a manner similar to that of a Prime Minister towards the leader of the opposition. You will want to consider how to take this forward with Sir David Wilson.
The 1995 LegCo Elections
You reported that the new electoral arrangements would need to be in place by the time of the District Board elections in September 1994. This meant there would need to be agreement on the arrangements by the end of 1993. Secretary of State asked us to confirm the timetable with Hong Kong: he was inclined to think that the timetable you had
outlined was generous.
CONFIDENTIAL