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Our drafting suggestions are:
Page 2, first tiret, line 4: "We had no choice but to start legislating...... "
Page 3, second tiret under "voting method for LegCo direct elections": add at the end "although we had explained the practical and political need to include it in our first stage legislation."
Next tiret on the same page: minimise the scope for abuse.
line 2:
"In order to
Page 4, third tiret, line 5: it would be more accurate to say "we put forward an extended oath which was based on points from the preamble to the Basic Law."
Next tiret on the same page: redraft the opening two lines as follows: "The Chinese side wanted legislators in addition to pledging allegiance to the SAR,....."
Page 5, line 1: a niggle but we think it would be more natural to speak of our intention to "seek" the views of the Community.
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الصمد سوم
PF Ricketts
Rever
Hong Kong Department
cc: N Cox, Esq., Peking (by fax)
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