TNAG-1329-FCO40-1756-Future-of-Hong-Kong-test-of-the-acceptability-of-the-Joint-D-1984 — Page 75

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SECRET

Reference

9 AUG 1984

Mr Galsworthy

FUTURE OF HONG KONG : TEST OF ACCEPTABILITY

No

HKK040/1 (619)

1. You asked for comments on Hong Kong telno 703 to Peking (attached).

not

2. I agree that the timetable which we have set ourselves for the completion of the test of acceptability is very tight. At the end of the day it may

well be necessary to relax it. It would however seem wise to take a formal decision to that effect at this stage when there are still certain elements of flexibility which might be made to work to our advantage.

3.

The major unknown is of course the date on which the test of acceptability can begin. Every day between the initialling of an agreement and the end of September

is

a day gained. In addition it may be possible to compress certain of the activities listed in the telegram, as follows:

•

(i) Work on drafting the White Paper and on translating it into Chinese can of course be taken a long way in advance of the initialling of an agreement. We agreed in a separate discussion this morning that drafting should begin as soon as possible The aim would be to have a near-complete text in English and Chinese even before agreement is reached. The texts of the agreement and the associated documents already exist in both languages.

(ii) It may be possible to shorten by some days the period between the completion of the assessment report and its presentation to Parliament. It might be sent telegraphically to London and submitted to Parliament in typescript rather than in printed form.

(iii) The preparation of the overall assessment of the extent of acceptance might be compressed into a period a little shorter than the twelve days envisaged by Mr Bray.

4.

in

These possibilities might be discussed with the Governor during the Secretary of State S visit. The fact remains, however, that if an agreement is not initialled until the very end of September the timetable at present envisaged will nonetheless be extremely tight and could give rise to criticism. In those circumstances we should need to consider carefully whether the Parliamentary debates should not be allowed to slip into

to slip into early December. The arguments against such a Course are two- fold. First, we told the Chinese, res P onse to very insistent qustioning from Zhou Nan, that the debates would take place in November. Second, there is a danger that unforeseen Parliamentary developments could threaten to crowd out a debate on Hong Kong which we had allowed one or two weeks of the Parliamentary session. Hong Kong would have considerable priority, we cutting things fine.

5.

to slip into the last Although a debate on could still be

My own feeling is that we should if necessary be prepared to

SECRET

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