TNAG-1439-FCO40-1923-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 182

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12.

The

discussion by

13.

(a)

Governor concluded this part of the saying that the 1987 Green Paper might:

pose the question of whether people wanted direct elections or not;

(b) propose an

ê

increase

constituency Members;

in

functional

(c) subject to (a), propose 8-10 directly

elected Members;

(d)

propose the retention of a reduced number of appointed Members;

DB

(e) give the option of retaining the

Electoral College seats or of replacing them with directly elected seats.

agreed

Members

that we should say to the Chinese that we believed that if there was a consensus in favour of 8-10 directly elected Members we should have to respect that consensus. The Chinese would then have to decide whether they should stand out against that consensus. Members recognized that such a consensus might well not emerge.

14.

Members' attention was drawn to paragraph 27 of the 1984 Green Paper which rehearsed the arguments for and against direct elections.

Tactics for influencing the Chinese

15.

?

The options were:

(a)

(b)

SO

through our friends on the BLDC and the BLCC. We could rely on the lawyers to get the legal points across. They would speak with one voice and would

would be heard. But the constitutional points were

little understood that those advancing our point of view were likely to be drowned out by the many other voices. Therefore Members preferred:

British

was

a direct approach by the Government, initially by means of a meeting between the Secretary of State and Mr WU Xueqian () which it hoped to contrive when Mr Wu visited Europe in May. The Governor said that tactics would be further discussed with Sir Richard Evans, when he visited Hong Kong in the following week.

G.F. 316

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