TNAG-2716-FCO40-3922-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1993 — Page 46

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The Rt Hon Lord Shawcross GBE QC

60 Victoria Embankment London EC4Y OJP

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SWIA 2AH

From The Minister of State

25 January 1993

Dear Lord Shawcross

Thank you for your letter of 18 December about Hong Kong.

Chinese

of

was

I agree with you that our present problems with the

That said, I accept do not rest on narrow legal points. course Pliny's maxim. The point I was seeking to make that the Governor and his experts in Hong Kong, and we here, had very much in mind in drafting his proposals the terms of Joint Declaration, the Basic Law and our previous

with the Chinese discussions

the

proposals are documents.

consistent

side. In our view,

what with

is said in

these those

you

never first one

electing ten

The point I was making on the Election Committee (what refer to

as the "elite" committee) is that there has

The before been such a committee in Hong Kong. ever is to be constituted for the purpose of members of the 1995 Legislative Council. I set out earlier letter our reasons for believing that the Basic does not lay down the composition of this Election Committee. The Governor therefore had to make proposals.

reassure me

you

that the

in my

Law

Joint

he

More generally, let Declaration continues to underpin the policy of this Government and of the Governor. We will have to

agree to differ on whether we should have embarked on a long process of

Chinese before making private consultations with the public the Governor's proposals. But I think that even the Chinese now recognise that the Governor was serious when said that he was putting forward proposals, and was ready to consider alternative proposals from others. Many such alternatives have now come forward. The Legislative Council will have to consider them alongside the Governor's proposals.

that they

have the responsibility for striking the balance.

It is

right

should

/We also stand ready to discuss these

SA