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such an Election Committee. This might be said to introduce an element of experience and continuity, again at an evolutionary stage on the way to democracy. The BL model offers seats to "former political figures", and it is presumably desirable that the Selection Committee includes all members of LegCo, or less satisfactory - those whom they choose to represent them.
5. Of course I realise that all this must be seen in a wider political context -ie as part of a package. And Kay Saunders makes another point in favour of the alternative of unilaterally setting up an Election Committee of DB and MC members: that when the SARG/Chinese come to pull this down and erect their own Committee they may feel more constrained than now to make the new Committee publicly credible, because we shall have set a high standard against which it will be judged; if on the other hand we try to agree on a BL-style Committee now, the negotiations will be bedevilled by Peking's suspicions of HKG/HMG knavish tricks and the SAR may inherit something worse than necessary: ie a Committee emerging from such negotiations could be a liability rather than an asset.
Yours ever, Nigel.
N J Cox
Hong Kong Department
CC Sir John Coles, DUSS.
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