W(B)L 51-7433
NOTHING TO BE WRITTEN IN THIS MARGIN
Registry No.
SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
Top Secret.
Secret.
Confidential.
Restricted. Unclassified.
PRIVACY MARKING
CONFIDENTIAL
DESPATCH
DRAFT
To:-
Governor of Hong Kong
Sir,
„In Confidence
a lette frum
In Department
Type 1 +
From
Secretary of State
Telephone No. & Ext.
Commonwealth Affairs
Department
I have the honour to refer to your 1968 Saving despatch No. 209 of 27 October with
which you enclosed for my consideration and
advice draft copies of the Copyright (Hong
Kong) Order 1968 and the Copyright Bill 1968.
An interim reply was sent to you in te
letter (CR4/2/44 of 22 May) as a result of which
you felt that immediate consultation with us
and with the Board of Trade was desirable and
sent Mr. J.W.D. Hobley, Assistant to your
Law Officers, to London for this purpose.
2.
As you will be aware Mr. Hobley had
useful consultations with officials concerned
and also with my Deputy Legal Adviser, and I
am now in a better position to comment upon
the issues raised by the proposed legislation.
In the course of the consultations
consideration was given first to the question
of whether the licence to Rediffusion (Hong
Kong) Limited conferred the exclusive right to
relay broadcast television material and
whether the draft copyright legislation would
3.
take away that right and, as it were,
constitute a breach of contract.
4. In the opinion of my Legal Advisers, the
licence did confer on Rediffusion (Hong Kong)
Ltd. the exclusive right to relay broadcast /television
CONFIDENTIAL