TNAG-1748-FCO40-2467-Visit-by-Sir-Geoffrey-Howe--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-a-1988 — Page 13

CONFIDENTIAL

The meeting with ExCo will offer an opportunity to solicit

Counsellors' views on the Basic Law; on associated aspects of

representative government, especially the first SAR Government (Brief No 8); and on general progress over implementation of the

Joint Declaration (Brief No 10).

10.

The dominant issue of the visit will almost certainly be the

deteriorating problem of Vietnamese boat people (Brief No 9). There

is strong political pressure on the Hong Kong Government to bring in

a policy which will be more effective in deterring new arrivals.

The Secretary of State will wish to consider the implications with

the Governor and ExCo: and he will be pressed by OMELCO and the media to say how HMG will help. Sensitive bilateral (London/Hong

Kong) issues which could well be raised in ExCo include the still-to-be concluded) defence costs negotiations (Brief No 11) and

the current review of the civil aviation relationship (Brief No

13).

11. The other issues most likely to figure in discussion with

OMELCO or in the press conference are emigration (Brief No 12), the

perennial problems related to nationality and immigration (Brief No 14) and the proposed World Exhibition in 1997 (Brief No 17). A range of other, less current topics are also covered in the

briefing.

CONFIDENTIAL

Hong Kong Department

May 1988