PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
14 February 1992
His Excellency the Lord Wilson of Tillyorn HONG KONG
SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE MEETING ON HONG KONG ISSUES
I mentioned to you when you were here in January that the Secretary of State planned to have a discussion with officials on Hong Kong issues. The session took place earlier this week. We did not seek or receive operational decisions. Indeed the value of the occasion was that it allowed the Secretary of State to reflect on some of the policy issues which will arise over the next five years, without the need to take urgent operational decisions. Andrew Burns has already sent you a telegram about the Secretary of State's wish to have what he called a "political critical path analysis" of forthcoming decisions on the airport project. The following is intended to give you the flavour of the discussion on other issues.
Hong Kong Political Developments
We discussed developments since the September 1991 LegCo elections on familiar lines. We noted in particular that despite all the turbulence on the surface of LegCo, business continued to get done. We also looked at the pros and cons of bringing some liberal LegCo members on to ExCo. He also accepted that now was not the time to make further changes, and that this was an issue which will need to be considered by the new Governor. The Secretary of State recognised that an ExCo which included some of the directly-elected liberals would be a different ExCo, and that it was not by any means clear that the possible advantages would outweigh the risks.
Reflecting on ways of encouraging a more constructive contribution from Martin Lee, the Secretary of State commented on the value of a pattern of meetings between you and Martin Lee (and other leaders of significant groups within LegCo.) You may well already make a practice of meetings with leaders of the LegCo groups. The Secretary of State was clear that the question of how such meeting were arranged, and their frequency, were entirely for you. I think that the sort of model he had in mind was the occasional meetings which Prime Ministers hold with Leaders
MAIAAS
PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL
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