TNAG-2735-FCO40-3943-Hong-Kong-role-of-the-Legislative-Council-(LEGCO)-1993 — Page 66

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- para 169: A pedantic point, but any agreement we reach should more accurately be compatible with "the Joint Declaration and all other relevant agreements, and the Basic Law", (The Basic Law is not of course an agreement.}

para 176: Again, we believe the point could well be made without the blatant dig at the Chinese. We suggest ending the sentence after "credible".

- para 177: Rather than bluntly accusing the Chinese in the second sentence, we suggest "I will leave it to the Chinese side to say how far they have been prepared to move."

- para 178: The third sentence mirrors Chinese arguments. They are always saying that while they are prepared to discuss details they cannot barter away principles. A statement that "we are not prepared to give away our principles in order to sign a piece of paper" would invite a Chinese counterblast which could spill over into the talks. The Governor will recall that we spent the first few rounds of the talks in a sterile debate about principles.

it.

The Chinese would be only too happy to renew

- para 180: I like the Aesop's fable reference, but if the Governor uses it he will lay himself open to attack, and not only from the pro-China and mainland-controlled press, that he has his head in the sand: if there is one big thing about Hong Kong it is that China will take over in 1997. One can envisage a cartoon of the Governor as a curled up hedgehog, with a Chinese lorry driven by Deng Xiaoping in the quise of a fox bearing down at high speed.

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