TNAG-2218-FCO40-3186-Constitutional-development-in-Hong-Kong-Letters-Patent-and-R-1991 — Page 160

Mr Stone

HKD

ļ

Whiz olal

FROM:

Miss S Brooks

Legal Counsellor

K199

10270 3069

DATE: 22 February 1991

(

BCC

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS: GOVERNOR NEED NOT PRESIDE AT LEGCO

1. I am in sympathy with what the Hong Kong Government is seeking to achieve (paragraphs 2 to 5 of Hong Kong telno 458) but their proposed amendment to the Royal Instructions does not seem to me to have the desired effect.

I suggest the following amendment instead. Substitute for the present paragraph 1 of Clause XXI of the Royal Instructions:

2.

"Meetings of LEGCO at which the Governor is present shall

be presided over by him."

An alternative would be to delete paragraph 1 altogether. These proposed amendments do not explicitly confer a discretion on the Governor to choose whether or not to preside at meetings of LEGCO but they would mean that the Governor would only have to preside over these meetings of LEGCO which he attended. He would not have to attend all meetings of LEGCO "so far as is practicable" which is the present position.

Shelagh Brooks,

S Brooks