5 October 1992
Mike Hanson Esq Government House HONG KONG
BY FAX
Confidential
DIEU
HAR 017/7-Foreign &
Commonwealth
Office
tacar 30
via COMCEN
London SWIA 2AH
Telephone: 071-
Jear Mike,
HONG KONG: PRESENTATION OF THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH
Many thanks for faxing us a copy of your list of propositions and undertakings in the Governor's speech.
I have now had a chance to go through this, and only have one point. I apologise for raising it so late in the day. But I think that on page 11, dealing with constitutional development, the sentence at the top on Policy is a bit misleading. If we say that our policy is "to strengthen Hong Kong's political institutions within the... Basic Law" that signals too clearly that we are not serious in pressing for an increase in the number of directly elected seats. For the purpose of a one sentence summary of our policy, I think you need to include something like "to the maximum extent possible" which preserves our options on proceeding with an increase in the number of directly elected seats.
I wanted to register this point with you in case your attractively crisp one sentence summary of the policy becomes the Governor's standard line!
Yes
PF Ricketts
ever,
Peter.
Confidential