CONFIDENTIAL
Mr Hum
PS/Mr Goodlad
HONG KONG: DRAFT WHITE PAPER
FROM: P F Ricketts
Hong Kong Department
DATE: 7 October
1993
CC:
Sir John Coles
Mr Fry, FED
Special Advisers
Mr Wye, RAD
1.
When the Governor was here in late July, he said that he thought it would be necessary for HMG to produce a White Paper on the electoral talks, whatever the outcome. He suggested that the aim should be to have something on the stocks which could be published quickly once the talks ended.
2.
I have been working on a draft since then. It assumes a
breakdown of the talks. I discussed an earlier version with the Governor in September. He was content with the way it was shaping up, and with the proposed structure:
A personal introduction from the Secretary of State. This would be a self-contained political statement on our case and would therefore need to be frank about why we could not
accept what was on offer from the Chinese;
A longer section which would be dispassionate in tone, letting the facts speak for themselves, sub-divided into
three sections:
paper.PET.JRB
A potted history of the development of representative government in Hong Kong, which would among other things explain why we did not introduce democracy earlier;
An account of the talks;
CONFIDENTIAL