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Mr Larmour
RECEIVED IN
REGISTRY N». 60
23 MAR 1976
RS 013/393/1
1. It may be helpful if I record a summary of what I think was agreed at the meeting on Hong Kong on Monday 15 March.
2. In the long term the advantage to Britain of having Hong Kong seemed to be outweighed by the disadvantages. We therefore should look over the long term for the earliest practical disengagement. We could not announce this as policy because it would produce a massive Hong Kong lobby: but we should use it as a basis for our thinking.
3. The meeting agreed with the assessment in paragraph 16 of the Planning Paper. The Secretary of State should be advised not to take any initiative on Hong Kong during his visit to Peking this year. If the Chinese did unexpectedly raise the subject he might say that he wished to consider what they had to say. Un internal matters, Lord Goronwy-Roberts said that we could not impose policies from Whitehall over the heads of the Hong Kong Government or over EXCO and LEGCO. But the composition of EXCO and LEGCO was wrong, and institutional reform was necessary. He accepted that the elective process was ruled out. However it would be worth considering a change of function to make EXCU governmental and LEGCO parliamentary, in conjunction with an expansion of LEGCO, perhaps to about 50.
4. There was a short dicussion of the possibility of an increased, more representative LEGCO opposing Westminster points of view. It was concluded that the risks of this were acceptable. It was agreed that the Government's reservations on this should be taken into account in the Planning Paper, but the consensus of advice to the Foreign Secretary should be that the movement was necessary.
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