TNAG-2790-FCO40-4029-Future-of-Hong-Kong-1993 — Page 143

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Mr Bunten

Mr Morris HKD

Morris

Careful for advice

Reference.

CONFIDENTIAL

014/1

advice in consultarzón

il Ms Sa

CRRY

سن

93

STRY

Taker

WORKING PRACTICE AGREEMENT

1.

There are three related tasks that now need to be carried with relation to our "Working Practice Agreement". They are: Devaluation of the 1992/93 Agreement conclusion of the 1993/94

Agreement, and consultation over Far Eastern Section's objectives.

1992/93 AGREEMENT

2. I would be grateful if you could put in hand a formal evaluation of Far Eastern Section's service to your Department over the last year both in terms of the WPA and more generally. Ideally, this would be in the form of a minute from Mr Ricketts to the Director which he can then submit to Mr Hum. This replaces the rather more cumbersome form filling exercise we inflicted on you last year.

3.

To aid you in doing this, I attach a copy of the previous WPA, together with the Section's worklist for 1992/3. The latter covers the main items of written output (though it is not exhaustive). I am conscious that I have not in fact been able to produce drafts of either of the longer term papers mentioned in the WPA. As you are aware, Far Eastern Section has been under strength throughout the period, and I have thus not been able to devote as much time as I would have liked to Hong Kong. hope however that I have been able to meet the main demands put on RAD by your Department. We are now in the process of recruiting another desk officer, and Dr Hoare will be returning from IISS in the summer. With luck, therefore, we should have greater capacity after a few months.

I

4. I very much appreciate the way in which I have been kept informed, both on paper and through the weekly meetings etc, of the main concerns of you department. It has helped a great deal in allocating resources within this Section. I trust that I have been able to meet your immediate needs satisfactorily.

WPA FOR 1993/94

5.

I attach a draft WPA for next year, very much on the lines of the previous one. I have kept in the write up the Basic Law exchanges, as this could still prove useful, if we do get into talks with the Chinese. Any other ideas you might have would be gratefully received, and we might perhaps discuss this at the next weekly meeting. When you are content with the draft, I will arrange for a formal copy to issue under the Director's signature.

A,B

U

CODE RAD

CONFIDENTIAL