TNAG-1333-FCO40-1765-Future-of-Hong-Kong-legislation-1985 — Page 299

DSR 11 (Revised)

DRAFT:

FROM:

minute/letter/teleletter/despatch/note

SECRETARY OF STATE

DEPARTMENT:

TEL. NO:

TYPE: Draft/Final 1+

Reference

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION

ΤΟ:

Your Reference

RT HON VISCOUNT WHITELAW MC CH MP

Top Secret

Secret

LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL

Confidential

Restricted

Unclassified

PRIVY COUNCIL OFFICE

LONDON

PRIVACY MARKING

CAVEAT....

.In Confidence

SUBJECT:

Copies to:

Attorney General

Sir R Armstrong

bcc:

Sir R Engle

Parliamentary

Counsel

You will remember that we spoke briefly in December about

the possible need for legislation on Hong Kong in the

Legislative programme for 1984-85.

We are now working for an initialled agreement with the

Chinese by the end of September. This will be followed

by a period of assessment of the acceptability of the

agreement to the people of Hong Kong and a debate in the

House of Commons, probably early in December.

undertaken to sign the agreement before the end of the

We have

year.

Enclosures-flag(s).

One of the factors in the negotiation is the date of

ratification of the agreement. The Chinese attach

considerable importance to early ratification, and

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