RECE
Mizal....
20 JAM 1990
IN
Foreign & Commonwealth
Office
London SWIA 2AH
From The Minister of State
25 January 1993
The Rt Hon Lord Shawcross GBE QC 60 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y OJP
Jul 2611
Gogh 6
PS/GM, Mary has
(by fax)
kelh
Ca2 H3 011/6
Dear Lord Shawcross
131
Thank you for your letter of 18 December about Hong Kong.
I
course
Chinese
was
agree with you that our present problems with the
of That said, I accept not rest on narrow legal points.
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 the Joint Declaration, the Basic Law and our previous discussions with the Chinese side. In Our view, these
consistent with
is what
said proposals are
in those
documents.
The point I was making on the Election Committee (what you refer to as the "elite" committee) is that there has never before been such a committee in Hong Kong. The first one
is to be constituted for the purpose of electing ever members
the 1995 Legislative Council. I set out 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
of
the
ten
in
my
Law
Joint
this
he
let generally,
me reassure you that Declaration continues to underpin the policy
of Government and of the Governor. We will have to agree to differ on whether we should have embarked on a long process
Chinese before of private consultations with the
making public the Governor's proposals. But I think that even the Chinese now recognise that the Governor was serious when said that he was putting forward proposals, and was ready to consider alternative
from proposals
others.
such Many alternatives have now come forward. The Legislative Council will have to consider them alongside the Governor's
It is right proposals.
that they should have the responsibility for striking the balance.
/We also stand ready to discuss these
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