TNAG-1446-FCO40-1930-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-1986 — Page 69

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Mr Galsworthy said that we

CU

or

ought

to guard against accepting a

minority view purely because we were afraid of criticism from the

minority. Summing up this part of the discussion the Secretary of

State said that the Governor should say to the Chinese that pressure

for direct elections was not being

being stimulated by us, but that the

idea was being extensively discussed and no one could foresee

control how it would settle down or turn out. If it turned out in

one particular direction it might be necessary

respond favourably.

thought to what sort of system might best suit Hong Kong's needs and

avoid the pitfalls if this did prove to be the case. The Secretary

of State added that it remained most important to

carry the Chinese

along with us in

their understanding of the situation SO that we

could work out together how to react to feeling on the ground. All

this underlined the need to approach them with maximum prudence and

caution.

and prudent to

We were naturally giving some preliminary

Visit to Hong Kong by Zhou Nan

4. The Secretary of State observed that it was becoming difficult

that Zhou Nan had not been invited officially to Hong Kong. The

Governor said that this had been put to ExCo, who had agreed that

Zhou could be invited. ExCo had, in characteristic fashion, asked

for more information about the modalities but he expected to be able

to agree in a couple of weeks that Zhou should be invited to Hong

Kong.

Visit by the Governor to Peking

5.

to

Hong

The Governor said he thought the main value of his visits Peking was to give the Chinese an opportunity to put views

put views directly

to the British side: contact between the Ambassador and the

Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council was difficult.

His visit in September had proved to be an extremely useful

mechanism in obtaining Chinese views on a variety of issues.

Secretary of State agreed, adding that it was important to avoid

too frequent visits, which might give the impression that the

Governor was going to Peking for instructions, or being summoned by

the Chinese.

The

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