GINACV
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
CONFIDENTIAL
HKK 026/2
A J Scott Esq CBE
Deputy Chief Secretary Government Secretariat
HONG KONG
Де Der Alan,
SECRETARY OF STATE'S MEETING WITH WU XUEQIAN
1.
(14.) In his telegram no 1408, sent shortly before the
State's of
meeting with Secretary
Wu, the Governor mentioned his recollection that pressure in Hong Kong to develop the District Board system began as early as 1979, after a visit to London by a group of Urban Councillors. if his recollection was correct this He suggested that fact could be used to rebut any Chinese argument that our interest in representative government arose only during the Sino-British negotiations.
2.
It has taken us some time to locate the relevant papers, but Research Department papers have now confirmed to the Prime that Mrs Elliott and Dr Denny Huang wrote Minister in July 1979 asking her to meet delegations of in elected Urban Councillors when they visited the UK
1980. The purpose October 1979 and/or February or March 1980. of these
some propose
constitutional changes". Within the FCO, it was assumed that this meant
entire Urban
on Council electing
extended franchise and increasing its powers. It was argued that it would probably be appropriate for Mr Blaker, the then the Prime Minister of State, to
but not receive them,
Minister.
visits
the
was "to
an
3.
Mr Blaker duly received the party which in addition to Mrs Elliott and Dr Huang included Miss Cecilia Yeung on 30 and Mr Tsin Sai-Nin. The meeting took place October 1979. The main topics covered were reforms to the Urban Council and the election of unofficial members to LegCo. As far as we are aware, there was no mention of District Board elections. We have not been able to establish whether
whether an early day motion followed, but are continuing our researches on this point.
HRR 02610 RECEIVED P GISTRY
0:
INDEX
- 6 JUN 1986
A86
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