TNAG-1849-FCO40-2624-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 83

24 MAY '89 28:50

FROM COI TECH RADIO

TRANSCRIPT K SELECT COMMITTEE ON HONG KONG 24 MAY 1989

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IR TED ROWLANDS:

It

I think we are entitled to push it a bit further

than this without having any invidious nature to it.

would be a matter of serious policy if in fact the Home

Secretary regularly over-rules the Governor's

recommendation in this respect. The implication is that

if we have granted 8 out of 499 applications, there has

been a rather heavy degree of in fact over-ruling the

Governor's recommendations.

That would be a serious policy issue for you if that

was the pattern. Could you just confirm or deny a general

pattern?

NR REFTON:

You are trying to get me, Ar Rowlands, to answer

hypothetical question. Let me first say to you that the

responsibility lies solely with the Home Secretary,

solely.

It is a false assumption on your part, if I might

say 60, the path that you were going down, that the Home

Secretary necessarily had rejected a large number of the

Governor's recommendations or views.

I repeat what I said to Er Bowen Wells. Please do

not think it implicit or explicit in my remarks that there

either has or has not been a major divergence of view

between the Home Secretary and the Governor on this issue,