SCA
RECI
MWB 012/3
CONFIDRYINL
2. JAN 1993
p.a. teglo &
PAO(S) 2/1156/91
DESK ON
A
REGISTRY
Constitutional Development
Mass fas
1.
Martin Barrow rang me on 25 January.
He was about to
go to London. He wanted to know if we had any further information on the Chinese position. I said that we had not.
2.
I asked him about the work he and a number of independents in LegCo were doing. He said that there were now 9 members of the group. of the 11 independents only Andrew Wong and Y F Hui were not attending. The group was working not just on the functional constituencies but also on the Election Committee. I asked what their thinking was on the latter. He said that they were thinking of using the functional constituencies as the electorates for the first 3 groups of the Basic Law model. From what he said, it sounded as if a number of them were in favour of including NPC and CPPCC delegates in the fourth group. I expressed surprise at this since these people were not elected. personally accepted that members of the Election Committee should be elected.
He said that he
3.
He said that some members of the group were
considering whether it was wise to support the Governor's
proposal that all MC and DB members be elected. I said that I certainly hoped all the independents would support this proposal.
J
4.
I draw two conclusions from this:
The contention of some members of EXCO that independent Legco members are working on the
functional constituencies but not the Election Committee, a point used to support the argument that ExCo itself should amend the Governor's proposals on the Election Committee, is incorrect.
CONFIDENTIAL