憲制事務司
布政司
ATENGENH40
CONFIDENTIAL
BY FAX
HKB 012/3
pa. Leglo
Secretary for Constitutional Affaus
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT,
LOWER ALBERT ROAD. HONG KONG
38
1 April 1993
Mr Peter Ricketts
Hong Kong Department
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
Foreign & Commonwealth Iffice
16 APR 13
DESK OFFICER INDEX
STAY
Mum
Not und creative
PA
•Acpon Tekdil
Dear
Peter,
Castr
Z M
Hanking ended her
2/4
Hong Kong Mr Martin Barrow
M. Morris
Me Sagut
Thank you for sending me a copy of your note to
Mr Hum on your breakfast with Mr Barrow.
Both he and Jimmy McGregor have this bee in their bonnet that somehow it would be in the public interest to have a motion debate on the various elements of the constitutional package. Jimmy tried to achieve this by amending Dr Philip Wong's motion [asking the Government not to put forward the constitutional package] which was debated on 13 January 1993. This caused a great deal of upset among members especially the independents who do not wish to expose themselves to more arm twisting on a non-binding motion. In the end Jimmy had to withdraw his amendments. Indeed, it would be bad for us if we failed to win support for elements of the package such as the Election Committee which we won in previous motion debates.
As for calling for "Sino-British talks" there is already plenty of pressure within the community for talks. Any extra pressure is likely to be on us. I can see CRC and pro-China LegCo members using the opportunity to press the Government to give way on status of Hong Kong representatives, and we will have to defend our position robustly. On the other hand, UDHK and like-minded LegCo members would be saying things which the Chinese would find objectionable. The end result is likely to be more fire and brimstone which will not be helpful in any effort to get back to talks on a mutually acceptable basis, which would probably involve some quiet fudging of positions.
what position?