CONFIDENTIAL COVERING SECRET
LegCo
10.
The traditional climax to the Minister's visit will be
the meeting with LegCo (Brief No 14) followed by the LegCo
dinner. Following the Governor's Address, LegCo members will
be aware that there is now little time before they will have
to decide the final form of the legislation on the 1994/95 elections. Whether the imminence of this responsibility
induces maturity or skittishness remains to be seen. But
both wings will press hard for indications that we are
prepared to shift, either on our (implied) deadline, or on
our bottom line.
11.
A
They will also press their familiar suit on passports
for the ethnic minority and for wives and widows of
ex-servicemen. We have the added complication this time that
the Governor has gone firmly on record in his LegCo speech as
confirming that he will continue to press HMG as strongly as he can for a better deal for these two categories of people.
We suggest that the Minister should say that the Governor has
been pressing for a change for some time, and that he (Mr
Goodlad) has kept Home Office Ministers informed of the
strength of feeling in Hong Kong. This is delicate, in that LegCo may allege a conflict between the Minister's reponsibility to represent Hong Kong's interests on the one
hand, and collective Whitehall responsibility on the other.
Emily Lau can be expected to contrast what the Home Secretary
told her when she asked if HMG's assurance to the ethnic
minority would also apply to ethnic-Chinese, and what he
subsequently wrote to her. Following the re-imposition of
visa requirements by Spain on 1 October, LegCo will also
press for HMG to do more to ensure continued visa-free access
for Hong Kong people, in particular to Europe. We can point
to the major efforts we made to dissuade the Spaniards.
12. LegCo will also raise Vietnamese Migrants, probably
focussing mainly on the continued cost burden; asking HMG to
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CONFIDENTIAL COVERING SECRET
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