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on whether the arrangement was designed to be in itself transitional or a prolongation of the status quo until a transitional period could be embarked on.
18.
As long as H.M.G. were responsible they would wish to remain master in their own house. Some role would have to be found for the Chinese to enable them to agree to a formula which would remove the pressure of the 1997 date, and the risks involved in accepting a representative with strictly defined functions would have to be taken."
19.
If the arrangement was to be transitional and the Chinese wished at the end to preserve some of the benefits they now receive from Hong Kong then we would have to agree to sufficient assertion of a new position for China in Hong Kong to end such affront to national pride as Hong Kong represents. I could develop the possibilities if you wish, but they would certainly have to include at least acceptance of a special representative of China in Hong Kong with defined functions. The latter would have to include measures to maintain confidence, as well as to assert some degree of Chinese guidance over certain aspects of the administration. On the other hand it would be important to maintain administration under the current laws, civil service and police, because otherwise the community would disintegrate unless by then Chinese administration has become very different to what it is now. Without such arrangements, which would mean Hong Kong having a special status, the Chinese could not hope to continue to draw benefit from Hong Kong and would have to accept the very substantial cost of incorporating it in the main land system.
20.
Would such an arrangement be reached through negotiation leading up to an agreed document, or merely through a process of gradual evolution?
It could be either; the
Chinese would probably prefer the latter. By a process of gradual evolution I mean a slow expansion
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