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disposition to change their line that there is not a
sufficient case for granting full citizenship. We recommended
on 19 April that Mr Goodlad should, after consulting the Home Office, formally respond to LegCo's representatives in the
form of a letter to the Chief Secretary, irrespective of the
timing of the LegCo delegation visit. Mr Goodlad agreed.
4.
Hong Kong have now confirmed (their tel no 638) a visit by a 3 or 4 person delegation from the LegCo Committee in the first half of June. Hong Kong now recommend that we "listen
to the views of the delegation in June and then respond
afterwards". The reason for this change of heart is Hong
Kong's wish to give the LegCo delegation "face" by
demonstrating that Ministers had taken account of the
delegation's views before reaching a decision.
5.
The Home Office have told us that a draft reply to Mr
Goodlad's letter is now with Mr Wardle and should issue this
week. They expect it to say that they do not see a case for
giving citizenship to this group, but that they see merit in using the visiting delegation as a peg on which to hang this
message.
6.
We had hoped for an early reply from the Home Office, to
allow Mr Goodlad to write to the Chief Secretary well before
the Minister's visit to Hong Kong (29 May to 1 June) so that
there would be an interval between LegCo receiving the
unwelcome (if familiar) message and Mr Goodlad's arrival in
Hong Kong. Another reason for an early reply was to show LegCo that Ministers were indeed considering the representations made during their March debate
our telegram
sub.legcovis.NAT
JEB/JRB
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