TNAG-2450-FCO40-3567-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1992 — Page 90

M41301212

8 September 1992

Mr Hum

CONFIDENTIAL

or you

ATTED

сп

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SW1A 2AH

113

Dear Stephen,

HONG KONG: CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

So Ricketts of

cc/M

Miss Sander's off

& pa an

alix

At his meeting with the Prime Minister tomorrow, the Foreign

Secretary will raise consideration in London of the package of

constitutional decisions and proposals which Mr Patten wishes to announce in Hong Kong on 7 October. The Foreign Secretary plans to circulate a paper to OPD (K) colleagues very shortly,

but in outline:

the Governor wishes to improve the accountability of his Government, while strengthening its effectiveness; and to prepare for elections to the legislature in 1995 which will be seen to carry forward the development of democracy in a way

which may be able to continue after 1997.

to achieve the first objective, he proposes to separate the

membership of the Executive Council (ExCo) and Legislative - Council (LegCo) and to set up a new Committee to help manage

Government business in LegCo. This means that Mr Martin Lee

will remain outside ExCo: but his political opponents in LegCo, such as Mr Allen Lee, will no longer be members either.

www

for the 1995 LegCo elections, the Governor believes that we should carry out our commitment to seek to persuade the Chinese to accept more directly-elected members than the Basic

Law allows (20 out of 60):

given that there is no prospect of the Chinese agreeing to this we should use the issue as a bargaining card and concentrate on other steps to

increase democracy which are

consistent with the Basic

pm.8sept/CONST/njc

CONFIDENTIAL

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