cover the voting method for LegCo. Two reasons:
|
practical: dealing with voting method for
DBS/Mcs separately from LegCo would mean two
pieces of legislation: hence using more scarce LegCo time.
Political: single seat
-
single vote method
for LegCo widely supported in Hong Kong
including both Allen Lee's and Martin Lee's
groups. To introduce legislation which did not provide for this would invite an amendment,
which would lead us into serious difficulties
with the Chinese.
gazetting a si
· Chinese would not accept this. Time has now run out to love day of pursue the argument. Chris Patten will therefore be announcing Sustin on 2 December that he will bring forward legislation covering
all the urgent issues, including the LegCo voting method. He
will emphasise that where we reached agreement in the talks,
the legislation will reflect that. He will also underline
that we wish to go on discussing with the Chinese side the
remaining more difficult issues. We have proposed a further
round of talks in December to do that.
In short, we have not broken off talks. We see no reason why
the Chinese side should now break them off. There are good reasons for going ahead with an interim package in LegCo. We
have urged the Chinese side to respond in a constructive way
and to continue to cooperate in the interests of Hong Kong.
-
Douglas Hurd has it in mind to offer an oral statement in
the House on all this on 6 December.
cunn.mke.JM
SLM