E.R.
CONFIDENTIAL
4. In considering paragraphs 16-18 of the draft paper, the Home Secretary will wish to be aware that the 31 broad occupational groups represent over 1,000 sub-groups, and therefore each includes a variety of occupations with different emigration rates. Although it will certainly-be most convenient to decide issues of eligibility in terms of broad occupational categories, it may well be that during discussion of the Bill some attention will focus on the narrow groups. Information may be sought about the emigration rates of particular occupations and Ministers might, for example; be asked why stenographers and typists (for whom the latest emigration rate available is 1.7%) are being excluded when others with lower emigration rates are not.
5.
If we attempted to avoid this difficulty by including within the scheme only those individual groups which reached a specified level of emigration, a heavier weight would be put on the detailed emigration figures than they are designed to bear and, in any case, the results might not always be those which Ministers wish to achieve.
6. The paper also raises the possibility, noted at Monday's meeting, of excluding or including certain categories regardless of their strict place in the emigration league table. We suggest that the identification of any such groups is best left to discussion but the Home Secretary will wish to know that librarians and statisticians have been mentioned in previous OD (K) discussions as groups which are unlikely to have a central role to play.
(c)
1.
Top Businessmen
The draft paper draws attention to the need to accommodate the small group of Hong Kong's most influential businessmen (paragraph 21). It recommends discretion for the Governor to disapply the age handicap.
(d) The Steering Group
Such a
8. At Monday's meeting we undertook to lock again at the role of the Steering Group. Our conclusion is that it will be an indispensable part of the scheme for the Steering Group to have certain functions, and that these will inevitably go beyond the purely advisory. On that basis we think it unavoidable to have a clause on the face of the Bill. clause, although an unwelcome addition, will enhance the presentational virtues of the Steering Group as a guarantee of impartiality and against corruption. It does not seem necessary to rehearse these points in the CD (K) paper (see paragraph 13). Detailed proposals on the Steering Group are awaited from the Hong Kong Government and we will submit advice then on its role and composition, including on the case for a member appointed by the Secretary of State.
CONFIDENTIAL
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