TNAG-2449-FCO40-3565-Legislative-Council-of-Hong-Kong-1992 — Page 184

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From:

PS/Mr Goodlad

Date:

20 May 1992

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Mr Burns

CALL BY DONALD TSANG, 20 MAY

1. Mr Tsang called on Mr Goodlad this morning for half an hour. He said that his contacts with the Chinese on trade matters were frequent and good. They dealt with non-controversial technical matters rather than political issues.

2.

Mr Tsang said that the Hong Kong Administration was not well equipped to deal with LegCo. He had been impressed by the immense amount of work that the FCO and Home Office had put into steering the Nationality Act through Parliament. (Не had been seconded to London for the purpose.) In contrast the Hong Kong Government's preparation for Legco business was perfunctory. For its part, LegCo was not co-operative. real effort needed to be made to build a Government party there. He suggested a number of steps:

3.

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(a) Sacking the unofficial members of ExCo (whose performance on rates, he said, had been scandalous) and appointing a dozen existing members of LegCo to ExCo.

(b) Setting up a Standing Committee to which appointments would be made by the Governor. It should be made clear that the standing Committee was a midway point between LegCo and ExCo and that appointment to the Committee was a stepping stone to EXCO membership. Mr Tsang saw this as a way of increasing the Executive's powers of patronage, and influence, in LegCo.

(c)

Increasing salaries and perks for LegCo members ("a Rolls Royce and a million dollars", if that's what it takes).

Mr Goodlad noted Mr Tsang's original thinking with interest! He asked whether the Chinese would not have some objections to what Mr Tsang was proposing. Mr Tsang argued that provided

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that the role of the Executive therefore remained paramount the Chinese would not object.

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Peter Tibber

PS/Mr Goodlad

20 May 1992