TNAG-2451-FCO40-3568-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-1992 — Page 61

CONFIDENTIAL

布政司署

香港下亞厘舉道

* Our Ref..

* Your Ref.:

BY FAX

Peter Ricketts Esq

Head, Hong Kong Department

F CO

р

GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT

LOWER ALBERT ROAD

HONG KONG MAS at

5 November 1992

2514 Corn: Mr Mikay

ходи

M Das ED

་ག

Peten

,

Fehrra

HONG KONG: PAPER FOR OPD (K)

1.

172

Thank you for your letter of November and the draft

Set out below are the comments of

OPD (K) paper.

Tony Galsworthy, Michael Sze and myself on it. We are showing these, together with your draft, to the Governor overnight. But he will himself of course want to consider the next version personally.

2.

No need,

1 Hank.

Not realis relivni

Our comments are:

In paragraph 3 on the first page of the minute to the Prime Minister you might want to make reference to the alleged Chinese claim that we violated a 1990 understanding on the Election Committee. By and large that allegation has been dealt with effectively.

We suggest rewording the second tiret on the second page of the minute to read: "a similar effort to frighten members of the business community. We have already heard the first jitters from that quarter. They seem particularly opposed to the proposed changes to the functional constituencies.

We suggest that the final paragraph on the second page of the minute be redrafted as follows: "The crucial issue is whether support for the Governor's package will hold up in Hong Kong under such an onslaught. At present the Hong Kong Government reckon they can count on the firm support of about half of LegCo. It would be very helpful to have the Governor's assessment on 18 November. So far the markets are resilient

CONFIDENTIAL

173