TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 155

exchange of diplomatic correspondence" because, having already concluded in

their own minds that no agreement was made in the content, then they

characterised them as merely an exchange of letters. It is a question on

the one point of directly elected constituencies do constitute an

agreement, because once you seize a process of negotiation through them to

which point the Chinese Government moved to a position of placing certain

things in the Basic Law, and as Mr Hurd then in his communication said:

Against this background I am now prepared to confirm an understanding with

the Chinese Government, it seems that both sides fulfilled that

understanding.

There are other points, such as the point that the British

Governor and the Foreign Office made the point that the Basic Law did not

in the end contain these five principles, that they were not fully

reflected. If one looks at the papers all that this communication from the

Foreign Secretary said is:

Meanwhile I hope that the five principles which

we have agreed can be reflected in the Basic Law. That to my mind is not

electoral committee.

putting the Chinese on notice of a condition to that agreement on the

However, I would say that there are other points in

which you can see that the matter was not fully concluded.

I would say

that there are conditions which were not fulfilled.

They are fewer than

perhaps the Foreign Offie has made out in my own mind, but still, I would

not say in the end on these other points there was a binding agreement.

100.

Mr Duffy, would you comment?

On a

(Mr Duffy) Chairman, I broadly agree with the perspective as expressed

in the memorandum from the Foreign Office. The Foreign Office and the

statement of the Secretary of State referred to a common understanding on

certain points. I do not think that one can put it higher than that.

number of other issues when one reads the text of the Exchange it is clear

that there was not a meeting of minds, which is a minimum to constitute an

agreement, but there is the further point mentioned in the Foreign Office

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