TNAG-2780-FCO40-3999-Future-of-Hong-Kong-constitutional-development-Chinese-reac-1993 — Page 10

Mr Ricketts

Mogente

HKD

CONFIDENTIAL

01212

RECEIVED

13 JU! 1993

DESK C INDCX

M

огра

и Сетевари

Mr Sze

вы

REGISTRY Sir R. Mclaren

tion Taken

2.

Back to me

Hong Kong: Office Meeting, 1 July

175°

Эла

The Secretary of State and the Governor met before OPD (K) this morning. You have already acted on the question of the Secretary of State's visit to Peking and Hong Kong. The other operational points which arose

There was discussion of the suggestion that 8 December should be the effective deadline for concluding the talks. It was agreed that this would need careful handling, especially in public, to avoid giving the Chinese the impression that we were setting an ultimatum. The Governor agreed that 8 December need not be treated as a strict deadline, and that we might speak in terms of needing a conclusion "by the end of the year".

The point was made that the Chinese saw the Governor's October speech as a natural deadline for the process. We should keep the December deadline to ourselves. We should in due course need to consider carefully what line the Governor took in that speech, and to take the Chinese through it. Amendment to certain Hong Kong legislation would be needed in October which would reveal our timetable to the Chinese.

2/7

01 July 1993

сс

: PS

PS/Mr Goodlad

PS/PUS

Sir J Coles

Mr Hum

Hd, FED

Planners

News Dept

Special Advisers

Skerm Smith

(J S Smith)

CONFIDENTIAL

1