Mr Burns
Private Secretary
CONFIDENTIAL
Mrs 01213
FROM: P F Ricketts
DATE: 28 February 1992
cc: PS/Lord Caithness
Sir J Coles
Mr Davies, FED
Mr Bickham,
Special Advisers
HONG KONG: FOLLOW-UP TO THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S OFFICE
MEETING
1.
There were a number of points discussed at the
Secretary of State's office meeting on 4 February which
required follow-up action with the Governor of Hong Kong.
Sir J Coles put these points to the Governor and we have now
had his reply, summarised below:-
(i) Hong Kong Political Developments
2.
The Secretary of State thought that the Governor should
establish a pattern of meetings with leaders of the LegCo groups, including Martin Lee, and should seek to treat Martin Lee as in some sense a Leader of the Opposition.
3. The Governor confirms that he does indeed see Martin Lee
on a regular basis, although with an irregular timetable.
The Chief Secretary also sees him for private discussions. The Governor also sees other leaders of LegCo groups, and has instructed senior civil servants to ensure that they
meet and talk to members of the United Democrats as well as
with other members of LegCo. In short, the Governor seems
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to have taken on board the need for regular meetings with the main players in LegCo.
(ii) The 1995 LegCo Elections
4.
At the meeting I suggested that new electoral
arrangements would need to be agreed by the end of 1993 at
the latest, so that the 1994 District Board elections could
be hold on that basis followed by the LegCo elections due to
be held in September 1995. The Secretary of State was inclined to think that this timetable was on the generous
side. The Governor tells us that the timetable is in fact
even tighter than I suggested. And many of the issues are inter-related. For example, the new Boundary Commission
cannot establish constituency boundaries until the number of
directly elected seats have been established. The Governor
has asked for HKG to produce a timetable working back from
the date by which decisions are needed. We will submit this
when received. But his comments confirm that the Secretary of State was right to conclude that it would be necessary for Ministers to consider policies on the key issues, particularly directly elected seats, at about the end of this year.
5.
The Governor also drew attention to the difficult and
time consuming discussions ahead with the Chinese on various aspects of the 1995 elections. This point was, I think, brought out at the office meeting as well. Separately, Hong Kong are pressing us for early agreement for them to start discussions with the Chinese on a number of aspects of the 1995 elections, such as the voting system. We have said
that, given the political nature of these issues, Ministers
will need a chance to consider the results of initial EXCO
considerations before any discussions begin with the
Chinese: the Governor recognises the need for this.
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(iii) First Chief Executive and Principal Officials of the
SARG
6.
He
The Governor agreed with the conclusion of the meeting
that discussions should be resumed with the Chinese towards
the end of 1992 and handled with great sensitivity. believes that in practice the best channel will be the
Governor to Lu Ping.
7. The Governor hopes that he will be able to have a good
talk about these longer range issues with the Secretary of
State on his next visit to London (currently planned for late April).
PF Ricketts
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