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incumbent to deal with the bulge of work generated by the
completion of, and move into, the new building; and to see
through the transition in 1997.
Legal Work
13. The Hong Kong Consultative Committee have suggested that
delicate legal work during the transitional period could
justify posting one legal officer to the future
Consulate-General. The JLG would not by then have access to
legal advice from HKG.
Political Section
14.
Certain aspects of political work in Hong Kong are
covered in a sensitive annex. In 1997, the British
Consul-General will take over responsibility for promoting the
full range of British interests in Hong Kong including
reporting on political developments there in the same way as other British missions. Preparing for this role will be the
most sensitive part of the exercise. We need to reconcile two
conflicting objectives:
-
not undermining the Governor as the single source of advice
to Ministers on Hong Kong issues until 1997. The Governor has
accepted that members of UKRep JLG should do some informal
political reporting on Hong Kong provided that this is copied
to him. But he has seen a political role for the SBTC as more
sensitive.
giving SBTC the tools he needs (in terms of staff and of
political contacts around Hong Kong) to perform effectively as the Senior British representative in the territory after 1997.
brief.consgen.BTC
JEB
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