TNAG-2192-FCO40-3129-Hong-Kong-nationality-package-1990 — Page 19

CONFIDENTIAL

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SECRETARY

Mr Paul, HKD

y PS

PS/M Mande Mi Melove

Lickington

FORTEGN AND COMMONWEALTH SECRETARY

HONG KONG ASSURANCES : APPROVED SECONDMENT SCHEME

As you will know, our officials met earlier today to discuss

the way forward on this issue and you will be receiving an

account of that meeting.

I hope that we will be able to discuss this issue in the

margins of Cabinet tomorrow. am taking the opportunity to

write, in advance of that, to say that I remain very concerned

about the prospect of retaining the secondment scheme, for the

following reasons.

The first, crucial, consideration is timing. If we are to

stand a chance of having the Bill enacted before the Summer

Recess it is essential that we introduce it before Easter.

Including the secondment scheme will lengthen the Bill and

complicate its drafting, and could imperil this very tight

timetable. Second, the way in which it is envisaged that the

scheme would operate would draw me in to the selection and

considerative process to an extent which would require a major departure from the philosophy of the rest of the Bill. The

present intention, as you know, is to put responsibility for

selection and recommendation squarely on the shoulders of the

1.

¡CONFIDENTIAL !