TNAG-1852-FCO40-2627-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 156

HID

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1A 2AH

17 August 1989

Jean Jominic

Hong Kong: Letter to the Prime Minister from Mr Allen Lee

Charles Powell wrote to Bob Peirce on 21 July about a letter the Prime Minister has received from the Senior Member of the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Mr Allen Lee. Mr Lee enclosed the Hansard report of the debate in the Legislative Council of 5 July about the Report of the House of Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs on Hong Kong. A draft reply to Mr Lee from the Prime Minister is enclosed.

As Mr Lee explains in his letter, the debate covered all the issues in the Report. On nationality, Members expressed strong disappointment that the Committee had not recommended the granting of the right of abode to all 3.25 million Hong Kong British Dependent Territories Citizens. Most maintained that this was esssential in order to restore confidence and that Britain had a moral obligation to do so. There were objections from some Members to the idea of a selective approach to the granting of the right of abode, coupled with a general recognition that it would be churlish to turn down such a package.

On the implementation of the Joint Declaration, most Members agreed that the Agreement was a good one. But it was clear that people in Hong Kong had lost faith in China's commitment to the Agreement and that more would need to be done to bolster confidence in it. Many Members called for improvements in the draft Basic Law and called on the Government to press for these.

On the development of representative government, Members expressed a range of views. A few, including Mr Martin Lee, endorsed the Committee's recommendation that there should be a fully directly elected legislature by 1997. A majority of Members expressed the view that this timetable was too fast, and continued to support the decision, taken by Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils before the events of 3/4 June, that there should be 50% directly elected seats by 1997. Some Members made it clear that in their view even this pace was too ambitious.

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