TNAG-1837-FCO40-2612-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 71

Secretary State €

Dsly

CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL

HKB 011/3

Private Secretary

FROM: D H Gillmore

2CJ/

A

CC:

W37 270 2156

11 January 1989 PS/Lord Glenarthur PS/PUS

Mr McLaren or

Mr Teasdale

Mr Holt, PRU

FOREIGN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE: POSSIBLE ENQUIRY INTO HONG KONG

1.

Since submitting a note of my discussion with Mr Howell yesterday, I had a telephone call from Mr Robert Wilson, Clerk to the FAC. He said that the Committee had had a useful discussion this morning. In the light of what Mr Hum and I had told Mr Howell yesterday, the Committee were now fully aware of the

limitations under which they would be working and of the sensitivities of the subject. Nonetheless, the Committee had taken the view that it was their duty to the House to "look into the Hong Kong issue. Given the limitations, however, the Committee was prepared to adopt terms of reference which would refer only to "progress in implementing the Joint Declaration".

2. The Committee did not intend to make any immediate announcement about the enquiry. Mr Wilson said that, when in due course this was done, the Committee would do its best to ensure that the fact of the enquiry did not raise false expectations. The Committee would, for example, make clear that Parliament had debated and approved the Joint Declaration and that the Foreign Affairs Committee would be operating strictly within that context. It would not, in consequence, reopen basic issues already dealt with in the Joint Declaration.

No

3. Mr Wilson said that the Committee was particularly keen to be quite clear from the outset on the nature of the "division of responsibilities" between HMG and the Chinese Government. doubt this follows up the distinction we pointed out to Mr Howell yesterday between the Chinese Government's responsibility for the drafting of the Basic Law and matters on which HMG were formally involved in negotiating with the Chinese in the JLG. In short, said Mr Wilson, the Committee would need to be absolutely sure where HMG's responsibilities lay and where they ended.

4. The Committee would therefore be grateful for a very short factual paper setting out the position. The Committee would meet again on Wednesday 18 January. It would be grateful if a note could

be made available for close of play on Monday 16 January.

5. In addition, Mr Wilson said that the Chairman had discussed with the Committee the advisability of early contact with the Chinese. Mr Howell had apparently thought it might be useful if

CONFIDENTIAL AND PERSONAL

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