CONFIDENTIAL
4.
The way is now clear for instructions to issue from the Secretary of State authorising the Governor to assent to the Bill. The timetable in Hong Kong is such that such instructions should issue by telegram today. They should be to the following effect:-
5.
"A copy of the Deutsche Bank (Merger) Bill 1988 has
been received in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under cover of a letter dated 9 March 1988 from the Attorney-General's Chambers. That letter states that this Bill is being treated as a reserve Bill for the purposes of clause XXVI paragraph 4, of the Royal Instructions. You are hereby authorised to proceed with this Bill, with the amendments set out in FCO telno 703 and, if it is passed by the legislature, to assent to same, without further reference to me.
After that telegram has been despatched I think a letter should issue to Hong Kong to the effect that it is no way to go about seeking the Secretary of State's instructions to send a letter on 9 March asking for action in time for a second reading debate on 16 March. This matter has been in preparation for a number of months, but like the previous private Bills which dealt with a similar point, it gave rise to certain issues which Legal Advisers in the FCO found it necessary to have clarified. This had to be done with great speed and with some inconvenience. There is no reason why the matter could not have been dealt with in a more orderly way if it had been referred to the FCO in good time.
ef
Paul Fifoot
Legal Advisers
CONFIDENTIAL
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