TNAG-2735-FCO40-3943-Hong-Kong-role-of-the-Legislative-Council-(LEGCO)-1993 — Page 79

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substance is largely as foreshadowed.

There is nothing I can

see which needs spark a major new row with the Chinese or

give them a pretext for breaking off the talks. There is a

good deal of highly coloured rhetoric in the peroration (from the Governor's own pen) but the rest is fairly measured; On specifics I have the following points:

Paras 122-124: a pension set-aside is a proposal which the Chinese have been pressing in the JLG. We should take some credit for adopting it in any message to Lu Ping in advance

of the speech (and perhaps when the Secretary of State speaks

to Qian);

Para 126: Nationality restriction on principle officials in

the Basic Law. I thought we took a restrictive view of those

to whom the BL definition applied? Could Mr Bunten please

check.

Paras 148 to 149: the JLG. This rather tails off. I think

there should be some reference to Defence Lands, and also to

the point that there is no British interest at stake in

settling JLG business;

Para 160 on a point of detail, the MC elections will of course

be in 1995;

Para 170. One of my main reactions to the draft is that this

paragraph on the timetable is rather weak. It does not deal

convincingly with the arguments against delinking, and the point about the BEC is confusing. We might try to work up an

improved version of this paragraph for consideration;

On the peroration, we shall have to tread carefully. Points

which it would be nice to see removed include the accusation

(176) that the Chinese want a sham election; the assertion

(178) that a bad agreement would be far worse than no

agreement (the Chinese have reacted adversely to this in the

past); the suggestion (187) that there is no democracy in

Hong Kong at present and the impression (191) that all this

can be achieved with little or no help from China. We shall

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