TNAG-2209-FCO40-3169-Future-of-Hong-Kong-principal-officials-1991 — Page 35

CONFIDENTIAL .

(d) apart from noting, in: para 2(a) and (c) our responsibilities for administering Hong Kong up to 1997, fails to consider the practical effect of what is (apart from anything Li Hou may say or the specific terms of JD 30) a transitional period, on HMG's responsibilities, the Governor's powers, whether there is a need to confer on him reserve powers of legislation and appropriation and whether British interests (as distinct from HK) would best be served by a devolution of executive functions away from the Governor. These are serious omissions in a paper designed to state our policy in the run up to 1997 and to give an outline of the steps to be considered in order to improve the political capacity of Hong Kong people in preparation for convergence.

2. In expansion of that summary, the only point which I would add to paragraphs 1-7 of the paper relates to paragraph 2 (a) and (d). I think we should add a qualification to this objective to the effect that we cannot expect to maintain the authority or responsibility of the Governor or HMG in the same way as it has been exercised in the past. The ability of the Governor to exercise power and command support in the legislature will inevitably diminish. The paper should then deal with the consequences of this. The two areas of consequence are

(a) the need for the Governor to retain a certain reserve of powers to enable him to pass any necessary legislation as regards those functions which he must exercise up to 1997, including the power to appropriate money for those functions; and

(b) the desirability of separating, either by transfer of power or by delegation, a wide spectrum of functions so that the responsibility for government in the transferred or delegated area is placed on Hong Kong people eg by the creation of proto-Chief Executive.

3... My principle difficulty with the paper, however, relates to paragraphs 9-21. What we are concerned with are two things: convergence and the practice of the administration of Hong Kong prior to 1997. The paper in this area concentrates on people. People, and the training of people, are very important. But we also have to consider, and it is: of equal importance, the institutions which can be put in to place for the purpose of convergence so that they may continue into the period after. 1997. We do not only have to consider the field from which the prospective Chief Executive may emerge, but also the office of a forerunner of the Chief Executive. To a certain extent the creation of that office may be a more fruitful task because the emergence of the holder of that office on the 1st of July 1997, or whenever. the Election Committee produces him before that date, may be more difficult to plan than the creation of the office itself.

PF1AAM

2期

/4.