TNAG-2451-FCO40-3568-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1992 — Page 162

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His

The Governor's view is that ExCo as at present constituted is ineffective and lacks credibility; and that the addition of the liberals to the present membership would lead to in-fighting and further reduce its effectiveness. judgement, with which I agree, is that his proposed changes should be broadly accepted in Hong Kong. I therefore doubt that it will create too much fuss here. The Chinese will be greatly relieved to see that Martin Lee and his group have not

been appointed to ExCo.

6. The 1995 elections raise more difficult political points. There are expectations in Westminster and internationally that for these last elections under British sovereignty we

will aim for a significant increase in the number of directly-elected LegCo members. But if the LegCo elected in 1995 is to be permitted by the Chinese to continue through 1997 until the next LegCo elections in 1999 (the so-called "through train"), then we must take account of the provisions of the Basic Law which will come into operation in 1997. This envisages a gradual increase from the present level of 18 to 20 for the LegCo which makes the transition in 1997, rising to

24 at the 1999 elections.

7. We are publicly committed to pressing the Chinese for a more rapid build-up than this in the number of directly-elected seats. There is no prospect of their agreeing to amend the Basic Law to this effect. The Governor's view is that we would have little support in Hong Kong if we were to lose the prospect of a LegCo through-train by unilaterally increasing the number of directly-elected seats. He therefore recommends that we should carry out our commitment to raise the issue with the Chinese but be prepared to use it as a bargaining card in return for Chinese agreement on points which will be more attractive to Hong Kong.

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