RECEIVED
ARCHIUSE
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234
Reference
HWB 16/6
Mr. Carter (Hong Kong Department)
r. cayer
Please see the attached papers about Hong Kong Copyright Legislation. I inherited these on the merger of the Cultural Relations Department of the Commonwealth Office with the corresponding Department of the Foreign Office (in a somewhat confused state).
2. My Department has now dealt with the immediate question outstanding on these papers, which was to reply (s has been done in my letter of 23 May to the Chief secretary) to the Governor's Saving Despatch No. 211 of 10 February.
3. But I am not at all clear why my Department should be dealing with this matter at all. It is true that copyright is one of our responsibilities, but I am sure that this should be interpreted to mean copyright in its international aspects. I cannot see any reason why Cultural Relations Department should be expected to deal with the domestic copyright legislation of Hong Kong any more than it could be expected to deal with, say, domestic Hong Kong legislation about drugs, gold smuggling or brothels (all these subjects can, of course, have international aspects). If the proposed Hong Kong domestic legislation on copyright had an international angle, it would be perfectly right for my Department to deal with that angle. The matters raised, however, by the Governor's Saving Dispatch do not appear, at least at present, to have any inter- national implications. They do have a number of other implications, constitutional and the effect on a United Kingdom company owning a subsidiary in Hong Kong,raising questions with which the Department responsible for the internal affairs of Hong Kong is surely much more qualified to deal than my Department. Underlying the whole question, of course, is the extent to which H.M. Government and its various Departments of State (in this case particularly the Board of Trade) are responsible for the internal administration of the Crown Colony. This above all seems to me a matter for the Hong Kong Department.
4. I have tried to ascertain how the subject came to be taken on by the Commonwealth Trade Department, but In the answer seems to be lost in the mists of time. any case, with the merger of the Cultural Relations Department, obviously the time has come to review the responsibility
/5. My own view