26 November 1993
Sir Anthony Durant MP Westminster Hall
Houses of Parliament LONDON
SWLA OAA
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CPA
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Foreign & Commonwealth
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The Minister of State
CPA UK BRANCH'S VISIT TO HONG KONG AND NEW ZEALAND
Many thanks for your letter of 18 November to Douglas Hurd giving a fuller account of your impressions during your visit to Hong Kong and New Zealand last summer. It is always useful to have a franker and more personal account than it is possible to give in more formal reports.
I am glad that you and your team were able to sample a good range of local Hong Kong opinion on our election proposals and, in particular, that you found the business community was not as monolithically hostile as is sometimes suggested.
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There is still substantial support in Hong Kong for the Governor's approach and for a legislature that is elected in a fair and open way.
At the same time there is, understandably, wish for to proceed by agreement if at all possible. So we have been pulling out all the stops in our efforts to achieve an acceptable agreement with China, but not at the expense of our essential requirements.
As you say, New Zealand has been going through a period of significant economic and social reform. Douglas Hurd was able to see something of this when he visited the country briefly in September. We and the New Zealanders have learned a lot from each other over the last decade and we will continue to look carefully at their experience.
Since you wrote, the counting of late votes has resulted in the National Party retaining a tiny one seat majority in Parliament. This will be bound to have implications for their reform policies, even though most of the restructuring of the economy and public sector is already in place.
The referendum on reform of the electoral system, which went in favour of the German system of Mixed Member Proportional seats, looks likely to have a profound effect on future New Zealand governments.
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ALASTAIR GOODLAD