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level. Frankly I am not sure that we can improve significantly on these names. You, Alan Paul and his Department however know the cast of characters in Hong Kong almost as well as we do and if you have any other particular candidates in mind we could of course offer comments. I agree of course that this year's election may throw up some new names, but our list is based on those we know now.
5. The following paragraphs will seek to explain the rationale behind my nominations, taking each occupational group separately, also explaining the origins of each nomination.
Political Figures
The first six names in this list, namely Maria Tam, Celina Chow, Steven Cheong, Kwan Cheng, Rosanna Tam, and Martin Lee, were all names that I suggested to the Governor. He commented "all interesting people in their various ways. But, equally all are familiar with the UK and go there very
frequently. It might be better to try to cultivate the next generation of politicians, who are likely to become prominent in the 1991 or certainly 1995 elections. Possible names would be Cheng Kai-Nam, Fung Kim-Kei, Lau Kwong-Wah and Yeung Sum. "
As you will see I added three of the Governor' s suggestions to my list. I am not sure whether the fourth, Lau Kwong-Wah, was omitted by oversight or to hold down the numbers. I appreciate that the six names I put forward are all well-known. I would justify them on the grounds described above, namely that they are people with considerable power and influence and are likely to remain so. Almost everybody at their level in Hong Kong will be a regular visitor to the UK but again I have explained above why I do not think this need preclude a sponsored visit. Nor do I agree with your implied suggestion that there could be special difficulties with Martin Lee or Yeung Sum. Martin Lee is already one of the most influential political figures here and my guess is that he will become more so after the elections and is surely therefore very much the sort of person we should be trying to influence.
Businessmen
The five names in my list,
in my list, Horace Ngan, Ewen Yee, Gonzaga Lee, Steven Poon, and Y C Chow are all major figures in large groups that buy very heavily from the UK. They were all suggested by me to the Governor. I had also included Vincent Lo and Jack So. The Governor had commented "Vincent Lo and Jack So are frequent visitors to the UK: they could therefore be dropped. Otherwise your list covers public utilities well. But it includes no-one from the banking or trading side. might usefully put forward some names from those sectors." did not in the event add further names simply because of the need to keep down the numbers. Also because I wanted to influence these particular companies who place orders worth millions of pounds annually to the UK.
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