HKB 011/8
RECEIVED IN DEGISTRY
03 AUS 1993
DESK OFFICER
PA
FROM:
PF Ricketts
Dope
Hong Kong Department
277
DATE:
14 July 1993
Mr Morris
CC:
Mr Hum
Mr Bunten
Ms Saunders
Mr Eyre-Wilson, PRU
53
FAC ENQUIRY:
1.
HONG KONG:
FOLLOW-UP
First, may I add my own thanks to those in the minute from PS/Mr Goodlad for all the work that went into the preparation for Mr Goodlad's appearance at the FAC yesterday.
2. Second, there are two pieces of follow-up work now needed:
1
3.
Ms Saunders has in hand a factual note commissioned by the FAC Clerk, Helen Irwin, on the political parties in Hong Kong. As discussed between us, this should also cover the more informal groupings such as the Independents in LegCo. Not too much detail. It will need to be cleared with Hong Kong and checked with Mr Goodlad before passing to the Committee.
At the end of the FAC session yesterday, Ms Irwin asked me for a further note setting out the issues under discussion in the JLG and the position reached in each case. Grateful if Mr Bunten could take this on. I note from the ExCo Part II minutes of 29 June (circulating separately) that the Governor commissioned at that meeting a note setting out in a factual way details of progress in the JLG to date, what remains to be done and items which were still hanging fire. The aim of this was to jog Chinese elbows, and it will presumably be a classified note. But it might provide the basis for a sanitised version to be passed to the Committee. It would be worth introducing it with a short passage on the main achievements of the JLG to date. It will also be important to bring out our efforts to make faster progress, as well as some indication of the damage which would be done if delays continue. Our recent note to the Secretary of State is a quarry of that. Again, it will need to be cleared with Hong Kong and submitted through Mr Goodlad.
Ms Irwin would like to have both of these notes before the summer recess. We should therefore aim to produce them next week.
PF Ricketts