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CONFIDENTIAL
Steering Committee
4.
The Governor of Hong Kong has recommended that the Steering
Committee should be chaired by the Chief Secretary and should have
about 10 members including a representative of ExCo (probably
Lydia Dunn), the Commissioner of the ICAC, Donald Tsang and
representatives of a British and a Hong Kong company among others.
5. The Home Secretary is opposed to having a Home Office official
on the Committee because he wishes to keep the maximum distance
between himself and the selection process in order to minimise the
risk of judicial review. There is in our view a strong case on
political and presentational grounds for a representative of HMG to
ensure that UK interests are not overlooked. We think that
this representative should be the Senior British Trade
Commissioner, Mr Peter Heap.
6.
The Governor is against this because he considers that in Hong
Kong it would look as if too much emphasis were being placed on UK
interests. We are not convinced by this argument.
7.
This issue is not one which needs to be resolved by "L"
Committee. But the matter could arise in questions from the
press when the Bill is published. It would therefore be very
helpful to resolve the issue quickly.
Use of Section 4 of the BNA
8. The Prime Minister has asked whether it would be possible to
deem that time spent in Hong Kong fulfilled the residence
requirements of Section 4 of the BNA. The Home Secretary has
consulted the Solicitor General who has confirmed that it would be
possible to legislate for this; but Mr Waddington has concluded that
such an approach would not be suitable for the scheme under
consideration. The idea is therefore very likely to be dropped.
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CONFIDENTIAL
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