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to take legislative action affecting his territory unless he
can demonstrate that unacceptable consequences are likely to
flow. On death sentences, the recent decision means that
if on any future occasion Ministers did not feel able to
support the Governor's decision that the law should take its
course, we should have to contemplate immediate action to
remove the death penalty in Hong Kong by legislative action
in the UK, against the general run of public opinion in the
Colony and the advice of Executive Council.
5.
Another question on which there is strong feeling in
Hong Kong where the Colony's vital interests are concerned
is harmonisation of the UK General Preference Scheme with
that of the Community on 1 January 1973. The effect of this
in certain very important trade fields will be that some of
Hong Kong's powerful competitors will obtain advantages under
the Community GPS Scheme (which we shall have to operate) which
are denied to Hong Kong Thus we shall, for example, be
obliged to discriminate against Hong Kong and in favour, for
example, of South Korea in textile and footwear imports.
There is division within the Office and within Whitehall
whether the agreement reached by Mr Rippon at the time of our
entry was irreversible and not open to further negotiation.
It will certainly be very difficult for the Community to
meet a request for renegotiation and it may be against our
European interest to press for this but on Hong Kong grounds
I believe strongly that we should make an effort to remedy
the situation which will arise. There is also the Mass
Transit Project, on which we hope that the British consortium
will win the day in straight commercial competition: but
if they do not get their nose in front, the question of
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