TNAG-1317-FCO40-1720-Future-of-Hong-Kong-meetings-of-the-Cabinet-Defence-and-Over-1984 — Page 80

SECRET

would add that the assessment itself rather than the views of

legislative councillors on it should be taken as the

expression of the views of the Hong Kong community.

authorative

TIMING

18. For the purpose of this paper it is assumed that the

the agreement

will be initialled at the very end of September and that the White

Paper will be published immediately thereafter. To meet the

requirement of signature by the end of the year it would be

desirable for the assessment of the agreement's acceptability to

Hong Kong to be presented in Parliament in mid-November and for the

agreement to be debated in both Houses before the end of the

month. This is moreover the timetable for Parliamentary debate that we have discussed with the Chinese at a very high level, and

[

confirmed in response to their repeated and suspicious questioning.

19. On the other hand it is the Governor's firm advice that a

period of two months is the absolute minimum which should be allowed

for consultation and assessment in Hong Kong after the publication

of the agreement (six weeks for consultation and two weeks for

assessment). He believes strongly that the need not to appear to

rush the agreement through in Hong Kong, and the complexity of the

exercise, including the sheer volume of the material with which the

assessors will have to cope, makes any lesser period impracticable,

and that to insist on a shorter period would seriously prejudice the

credibility of the whole exercise.

20.

If this advice were accepted the assessment report would not be

presented to Parliament until the end of November (unless the

agreement was

initialled and published sometime during September

rather than at the very end of the month). It would not be possible

for Parliamentary consideration of the agreement to take place

before early December. There would be a strongly adverse reaction

from the Chinese. If problems then arose

the Parliamentary

timetable or elsewhere which called into question our commitment to

proceed to signature before the end of the year, this would

greatly anger the Chinese and would conceivably jeopardise the

entire negotiation. It is therefore recommended that the Governor

SECRET