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specified. In this respect this would not go much further in substance than the assurance which has already been given that, in the unlikely event that any BN(0)s and BOCS came under pressure to leave Hong Kong and had nowhere else to go, we would expect the Government of the day to consider sympathetically whether to admit them, on
case by case basis, in the light of the circumstances.
We also wonder whether the annex to the proposed minute to the Prime Minister sets out the arguments about the ethnic minorities in a sufficiently comprehensive manner. This is of course for you, but I enclose a possible form of words which you might think helpful.
Finally, we are concerned about the timing proposed for the laying of the Order. The Joint Liaison Group will meet from 11 to 14 March in Hong Kong. Since this is the first meeting in Hong Kong, it will be fairly hot news with much controversy about what attitude HMG is taking with the Chinese on various matters. We would be very reluctant to see announcements made about nationality on 10 March immediately before this meeting starts, which would certainly raise the temperature in Hong Kong. We very much hope that it will be possible to delay announcements for at least a week, ie until about 17 March. We are not sure exactly what effect this would have on the timetable for debating the Order in Council. We do not ourselves think that it would be the end of the world if this debate were not to take place until after the Easter recess. We do however agree that there ought to be as short as possible a gap between the announcement of our decision on the LEGCO requests, and the debate in Parliament, so as to give the minimum time for a bandwagon to start rolling again.
Yours
ever
Pever herrmacol. Реки
PJ Westmacott Private Secretary to Tim Renton MP
Chris Hudson Esq
PS/Mr Waddington Home Office
50 Queen Anne's Gate London SW1
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