TNAG-1317-FCO40-1720-Future-of-Hong-Kong-meetings-of-the-Cabinet-Defence-and-Over-1984 — Page 79

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the

prescribed procedures faithfully in drawing up a report on

comments made. The monitors would not collect or assess opinion

themselves. They would witness at least part of the exercise of

consultation, have access to the material on which the assessment

report was based and publish their findings at the same time as the

assessment report. The assessment report and the views of the

monitors would then be presented to Parliament in a Ministerial

statement and placed in the libraries of both houses.

15. The members of the monitoring team would have to be very

carefully chosen. They would need to work in Hong Kong with a small

staff of their own. They should preferably include at least one

person with a good knowledge of the territory. They would be the

focus of considerable publicity and might receive a lot of

correspondence sent directly to them. They would have to work

quickly and efficiently to a very tight timetable.

16. The Governor's recommendation is that it might be appropriate to

appoint a team of two judges. One might be from the UK (eg a judge

with experience in a new Commonwealth country) and

(a Chinese)

from Hong Kong. There is a reisk however that two figures of such

seniority might feel it right to exceed their largely mechanical

functions and to make independent comments of their own on the

substance of the assessment exercise. If this ran counter to the

Hong Kong Government's conclusions, the effect could be very

damaging. While recognising that the monitors would need to have

sufficient standing to command credibility in Hong Kong, the Foreign

Secretary's own view is that it would probably be safer to appoint

two less prominent figures, more akin to the British Government

observers at the recent El Salvador elections (Sir J Swaffield,

former Director-General of the GLC, and Dr David Browning, an

Oxford University lecturer).

a

17.

The Legislative Council may itself decide to hold a further

debate after publication of the assessment report and probably

before the draft agreement is debated in Parliament. This may upset

the Chinese but LEGCO's right to do 60 cannot be denied. HMG would

have to make clear that as far as they were concerned the formal

consultation procedure had already come to an end: if necessary they

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