TNAG-0606-FCO40-754-Monitoring-progress-made-on-planning-papers-on-Hong-Kong-1977 — Page 238

Mr Smith (Economists Dept)

1.

I have told Mr Cortazzi that Budget Day will be 2 March. He doubts whether it would be right to have a meeting of the Standing Committee, as previously envisaged, on 23 February with a view to considering, as would now be the case, any information that the Governor may be supplying in advance about the budget. One consideration is that any information that the Governor supplies may well be of a highly confidential nature and that it would be better to process it outside a form quite as wide as the Standing Committee. Instead, Mr Cortazzi thinks that it might be better to revert to the idea of having a meeting of the Standing Committee after the Budget has been announced. He wishes to discuss the matter with Mr Stewart on his return (on 17 January) but it seems likely that the Standing Committee will no longer hold its next meeting on 23 February.

not

12 January 1976

DF Milton

Hong Kong Department