/ 3.
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I submit a draft telegram.
This advice
reflects the views of HKD and FED.
We have also
consulted the Governor and the Embassy in Peking, who
agree.
Argument
4.
A meeting on or about 21 May is not ideal from
the point of view of doing useful business on Hong Kong,
given that the third round of talks in Peking will be
held from 21 to 23 May. But we and the Governor
consider that if the Security Council meeting does take
place, it would not be understood in Hong Kong if we
missed the opportunity for a bilateral with Qian. There
is unlikely to be another equally convenient one this
side of the summer break.
5.
On substance, we believe that the meeting should
cover the full range of our dealings with China, namely
Hong Kong; other bilateral issues; and international
topics. On Hong Kong, the constitutional issues will clearly be the main focus. This meeting should not
become part of the negotiations.
The objective should
rather be to give political impetus to the talks by
reinforcing the main points in the Secretary of State's
message to Qian, ie that we are not prepared to go on
arguing endlessly about principles; and that if the Chinese side are willing to tell us what arrangements
they could accept in practice, they will find us open-minded and constructive.
The fixing of a bilateral
will probably mean that we do not get a written response
to the Secretary of State's message from Qian
beforehand. It will also mean that the talks in Peking
have to mark time, at least for their first day and
possibly for the whole of the third round.
But we
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