The Rt Hon Lord Shawcross GBE QC
60 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y OJP
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SW1A 2AH
From The Minister of State
25 January 1993
Dear Lord Shawcross
Thank you for your letter of 18 December about Hong Kong.
I
was
Chinese agree with you that our present problems with the do not rest on narrow legal points. That said, I accept of course Pliny's maxim. The point I was seeking to make that the Governor and his experts in Hong Kong, and we here, had very much in mind in drafting his proposals the terms of
Joint Declaration, the
the Basic Law and our previous Chinese side. In Our view, these
what is with consistent
said in those
discussions proposals documents.
is
with the
are
you
first The
electing
one
ten
in
my
Law
The point I was making on the Election Committee (what refer to as the "elite" committee) is that there has
been before
such a committee in Hong Kong.
ever
to be constituted for the purpose of members of
I set out the 1995 Legislative Council. earlier letter our reasons for believing that the Basic does not lay down the composition of this Election Committee. The Governor therefore had to make proposals.
More
generally,
Declaration Government
let
me
reassure
to underpin
you
the
the
of
Joint this
to
that
continues
policy and of the Governor. We will have to agree differ on whether we should have embarked on a long process
with the consultations
Chinese of private
before making But I think that even public the Governor's proposals. Chinese now recognise that the Governor was serious when said that he was putting forward proposals, and was ready to consider alternative
such alternatives have now come forward. The Legislative Council will have to consider them alongside the
proposals
that
from
others.
It is proposals.
right
should they responsibility for striking the balance.
the he
Many
Governor's
have
the
/We also stand ready to discuss these