TNAG-2777-FCO40-3994-Parliamentary-relations-White-Paper-on-Representational-Gove-1993 — Page 42

22 November 1993

SECRET

OIL

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

42

CISTRY

BY FAX

03 MAR 1001

USTRY

Martin Dinham Esq

INDEX

Government House HONG KONG

Dear Martin,

WHITE PAPER

London SWIA 2AH

Telephone: 071-

Miss faydal

Graucht ih

you

could take a

Corcht book at this

人

lel

ma

have your thoughts. C'd you also check with ? NTCA Hal It' Jeten wicht Bonstravere any

hallowed practice

1. I had a productive flight back to London, and as a result enclose an up-dated draft of the White Paper. You will see that it is now drafted on the assumption that the Chinese have broken off the talks because we went ahead with first-stage legislation.

2. The Secretary of State saw a slightly earlier draft of the introduction and was content with it subject to some minor amendments which are now incorporated. I would be grateful if the experts could check carefully the more detailed sections: we need to strike the usual balance between an accurate text and one which drowns the reader in arcane detail!

3

Given the need to have contingency arrangements in hand for a breakdown in the talks as early as next week, I would be grateful for essential comments by first thing on Thursday 25 November. I would propose to pass the text to HMSO for setting up in proof at that stage. If we were caught short by an early breakdown in the talks, we would probably have to issue photocopied versions of the typescript in the first place.

Ya

eve

Peter

PF Ricketts

HONG KONG DEPARTMENT

CC:

Nigel Cox Esq, PEKING

Ps

You will fee

that fection πì

dinham22.11/LETTERS/NJH

SECRET

tails off, pending further developments!