TNAG-2216-FCO40-3183-Position-on-the-Executive-Council-of-Peter-Duffell--Commande-1991 — Page 28

香港 總督府

Const fete

GOVERNMENT HOUSE

HONG KONG

า

CONFIDENTIAL

24 October 1991,

AKG Cil 112

Rele

1 NOV 1991

FCO Collective Memory: CBF on ExCo

nor Right our & pa VZ 1/xi

Before I went to London, and during our discussions then, I raised the question of whether, and when, to change the present arrangement by which the CBF has an ex officio seat on ExCo. You, and the others, said there was no memory in the Office of such thinking and that you had so far been unable to discover papers on the subject.

You might be interested, and amused, to know that when I mentioned the subject after my return to Peter Duffell, the present CBF, he said that before he came Hong Kong in 1989 he went for the usual briefing at the FCO. He had then been told that thought had been given to ending the present ex officio arrangement (largely for the reasons I gave in London), although the issue was not live at that particular moment. So, in 1989 at

Sur & Mcferen? least, there was a collective memory of the matter being

on the agenda!

None of this affects what we are doing on the subject which is to prepare a short note setting out the arguments and the mechanics.

Peter Ricketts Esq

Hong Kong Department

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

ere

d

Governor