exchange of diplomatic correspondence" because, having already concluded in
their own minds that no agreement was made in the content, then they
characterised them as merely an exchange of letters. It is a question on
the one point of directly elected constituencies do constitute an
agreement, because once you seize a process of negotiation through them to
which point the Chinese Government moved to a position of placing certain
things in the Basic Law, and as Mr Hurd then in his communication said:
Against this background I am now prepared to confirm an understanding with
the Chinese Government, it seems that both sides fulfilled that
understanding.
There are other points, such as the point that the British
Governor and the Foreign Office made the point that the Basic Law did not
in the end contain these five principles, that they were not fully
reflected. If one looks at the papers all that this communication from the
Foreign Secretary said is:
Meanwhile I hope that the five principles which
we have agreed can be reflected in the Basic Law. That to my mind is not
electoral committee.
putting the Chinese on notice of a condition to that agreement on the
However, I would say that there are other points in
which you can see that the matter was not fully concluded.
I would say
that there are conditions which were not fulfilled.
They are fewer than
perhaps the Foreign Offie has made out in my own mind, but still, I would
not say in the end on these other points there was a binding agreement.
100.
Mr Duffy, would you comment?
On a
(Mr Duffy) Chairman, I broadly agree with the perspective as expressed
in the memorandum from the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office and the
statement of the Secretary of State referred to a common understanding on
certain points. I do not think that one can put it higher than that.
number of other issues when one reads the text of the Exchange it is clear
that there was not a meeting of minds, which is a minimum to constitute an
agreement, but there is the further point mentioned in the Foreign Office
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