JH1ACL
HKK 0143
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
- 2 AUG 1985
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FROM: A C GALSWORTHY, HKD
DATE:
23 July 1985
3
Tevelo
Dr Wilson
Private Secretary
POLITICAL FEEL IN HONG KONG
1.
ce
?
ce. Ps/eus as/ili Luce
Sir W Hardy
In his minute of 19 June the Private Secretary asked.
for a reflective piece on the Hong Kong Government's touch
on political issues in preparation for the Governor's
weekend stay at Chevening.
Political awareness in Hong Kong
2.
While there had been a number of recent political
rows in Hong Kong, I believe the Secretary of State's
anxiety arose chiefly from the controversy surrounding the
LEGCO (Powers and Privileges) Bill. This was a subject on
which the Hong Kong Government completely miscalculated
public opinion. Part of the reason for this lay in the
timing of the preparation of the Bill: it was conceived
drafted well before the Hong Kong agreement was signed and
in a very different atmosphere. The objections to it were
mainly political and arose out of the agreement. The Bill
not reconsidered anew,
as it should have been,
following the agreement.
was
3.
More generally an increase
in
an d
general political
awareness, and thus, since people cannot be expected to
agree
all
•
the
time,
inevitably
some
political
controversy seems unavoidable, and even necessary in Hong
Kong if the territory is to develop the confidence to
manage its own affairs in the
future. Hong Kong is a small
personal animosities have always been
place: arguments and
magnified there beyond what would be normal in a less
concentrated environment. On top of this, the agreement
has
been a traumatic shock to the general population, who 2
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