TNAG-2209-FCO40-3169-Future-of-Hong-Kong-principal-officials-1991 — Page 9

12.

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SECRET É☀Z

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We should let it be known (in a suitably non-threatening manner) that we are prepared for the worse, i.e. a larger degree of discontinuity than we are prepared to accept. If necessary, we should be prepared to retain a greater number of expatriate officers in senior positions right up to

1997 if the Chinese make impossible demands on us. No one would be better for it, but it is the

Chinese who have to inherit the mess. That sort message would most convincingly be conveyed, in suitable terms and in appropriate stages, to the Chinese at very senior levels.

of

There is a certain amount of brinkmanship in these suggestions.

But the risk is worth taking: without a

reasonable amount of continuity in the senior ranks of the civil service, business confidence will be stretched to its limits;

without its roots firmly buttressed, the centre cannot hold.

T