TNAG-1444-FCO40-1928-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 38

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Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

Telephone 01- 233 4439

496

Alistair Lang Esq Clerk of Councils Government Secreta HONG KONG

Dew Alistai

HOW EXCO WORKS

1.

HKK Onli

RECEIVED IN REGISTRY

17 NO 1986

DESK OFFICER

) INDEX

Your reference

Our reference

COUCRL/M238/86

HKK 011/1

Date

14 November 1986

PA

REGISTRY Action Taken

Thank you for your letter of 11 October.

I have

shown your

draft to Paul Fifoot and have consulted him on the specific point raised in your letter.

2.

Paul's own suggestions (which I endorse)

as follows:

(a) In

3 last sentence, para

we suggest that "his" and "choice" be deleted and the latter replaced with "proposed appointments".

3.

MON

our

(b) In the first sentence of "note" on page 3, we suggest "Limited" rather than "minor".

(c) In para 9, we suggest the first sentence might read: "The Royal Instructions make provision for the Governor acting in opposition to the advice given him by the Council; the circumstances are to be reported to the Secretary of State at the first opportunity."

(d) Para 10: Paul agrees that this is correct, but feels that your point in parenthesis is sufficiently important for the parenthesis to be removed (and as a result I suppose the full stop before "although" might then become a comma). (e) In the note on page 6, we suggest "by the Legislative Council" be deleted (since it is the law, rather than LegCo, which empowers ExCo to make regulations).

I hope these points do not seem too niggling: they reflect concern that the subject covered in this pamphlet is of

one

a more sensitive one than that covered in its predecessor (also by that distinguished man of letters, etc). As you will appreciate, we have scrutinised particularly closely the section entitled "the Council and the future of Hong Kong", given its obvious "Chinese dimension". The role of ExCo during the negotiations was that the Chinese found easy to accept. Thus while much of

of the

section is

we need is as you say "public knowledge" in Hong Kong, we consider how the Chinese will react to its being published now. in assume you envisage that a copy might also be handed Peking, as was the case with its predecessor?)

(I

over

to

4. In this light, I think it would be helpful to have the views of

Embassy in Peking on your draft before it is finally

the

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