TNAG-2386-FCO40-3468-Asia-travel-budget-for-1991-1991 — Page 24

CONFIDENTIAL

THIS IS A COPY

THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN CLOSED UNDER

FOI EXEMPTION NO. 27.)...

for the third harbour crossing; and (later) formal

consultation on the fixed link if it looks as if this cannot be in operation before July 1997.

CFA

9.

I will submit separately on what we do next. But it was interesting that this was an issue on which the business and political worlds in Hong Kong did overlap. I had expected to be beset by the lawyers and LegCo members. But I was surprised to find that many in the business community also thought that the JLG agreement was bad for confidence.

Opinion was divided on whether it would be preferable to have no CFA before 1997, or a Court set up unilaterally on the basis of the JD language. It may be that over time they will come to see that the best can be the enemy of the good on this issue. But at the moment many people take the view that this is an issue on which Hong Kong people should judge for themselves what risks they want to run in order to sustain an independent judiciary, and that this is not a choice which should be reached over their heads in the JLG.

10. The key longer term question is what lessons we should learn and how we should prevent it happening again. With hindsight it is clear that the ground was not properly prepared in Hong Kong for the announcement of the CFA deal. It is fair to say in HKG's defence that even people like Allen Lee told me that they were taken by surprise by the vehemence of LegCo's reaction. The JD requirement for confidentiality in the JLG's work inhibited all concerned from keeeping the legal community informally briefed on the progress of JLG discussions. In particular John Swaine drew a parallel with the airport negotiations, where the ground

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CONFIDENTIAL