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she might draft a paragraph on this point to clear with you at your meeting on Saturday. Ms Lau said she would be glad to do so
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5. The rest of the discussion was primarily a debate about the future of Hong Kong. Ms Lau said that direct elections were no longer a live issue in the territory, since everyone accepted that some direct elections were inevitable. She agreed that there would be some support for a solution based on direct and functional elections only, to the exclusion of electoral colleges. She was critical of the Governor's recent comment in ?Canada to the effect that political parties were not appropriate to Hong Kong. Making quite clear that she had political aspirations of her own, Ms Lau said that parties were already emerging, and the Chinese accepted the fact. her view, it would be impossible for Hong Kong to retain a "high degree of autonomy" after 1997 if political parties were not allowed to develop freely in the meantime.
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6. Warming to this theme, Ms Lau was very critical of the recent appointment of three "Government toadies" to
She understood the importance the Governor attached to preserving stability. But it was in Britain's and Hong Kong's interest to encourage independent-minded individuals to come forward. on to argue that it was most important to establish that the senior administrators nominated by the Chief Executive after 1997 would be elected members of the legislature. Mr Renton said he was glad to hear Ms Lau air her views. He hoped that she was also conveying them to members of the BLCC in Hong Kong, and to others with regular access to Peking.
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7. Ms Lau then reverted to her familiar argument that HMG could not both assert that it was fully responsible for the administration of Hong Kong up to 1997 and argue that the outcome of the Review would depend solely on the views of Hong Kong people. HMG must give a steer. hoped too that the Chinese would consult us on the content of the Basic Law. Mr Renton explained, again, that we were in informal contact in a variety of ways, but that the Chinese authorities would, if pressed, insist that drafting the Basic Law was their business.
8. A final point. As an example of how members of EXCO should not behave, Ms Lau said she had been shocked at the way EXCO had treated LEGCO's three nationality demands. It had been quite wrong of EXCO to advise HMG that meeting any two of the three demands would be
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