Redraft
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(This redraft consists of a new para 6 and redrafts of the existing paras 6 and 7.)
6.
Even if the Chinese interest might be to allow Hong Kong to continue more or less as at present until some time after 1997, and in consequence they were prepared to ignore the Peking Convention, any acts of administration by the Hong Kong Government in relation to post-1997, including leases. after that date, would be ultra vires without amendment to the 1898 Order in Council, which makes the Governor's powers of jurisdiction co-terminus with the Lease.
(Redraft of existing para 6)
6a.
Within these constraints HMG must examine the problem in the medium and long term. For the next 5 years and beyond, the main objective must be the improvement of Hong Kong's economic potential and prosperity and thus its value to China, preservation of confidence among investors and the public service, and contentment among the Hong Kong population, against a background of the shortening Lease of the New
Territories. One must assume that this will become increasingly difficult and eventually impossible beyond some time in the second half of this decade in default of arrangements for post- 1997 that are acceptable to investors and the population. It is therefore necessary to consider possible options for a pre- or post-1997 settlement and the problems these will raise.
Medium Term
Land Leases in the New Territories
(Redraft of existing para 7)
7.
It would be surprising if the Chinese Government
were ready to move significantly within the next 5 years on the problem as a whole. But if the Chinese were not disposed
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/contd.
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