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possibility of permitting the Hong Kong authorities
to look after their own affairs. We cannot, of
course, alter the basic constitutional position.
That is fully accepted and understood by all
responsible opinion in the Colony. This is fortunate
because in any delegation of authority we have no
alternative but to include some such phrase as the
Governor's "It follows from the constitutional
position that HMG cannot abrogate final responsibility
for the Hong Kong Government's external relations"
(paragraph 3(3) of his telegram No. 525 of 10 August).
Moreover we intend to make it quite clear that the
Hong Kong Government will be required to keep HMG
informed about prospective and current negotiations of
any kind with other countries.
It seems to us that the realities of the
situation, described so well by Melville, leave us
with a choice of only two courses (i) to continue
(with all the difficulties of which we are only too
well aware) to attempt to restrain Hong Kong from
taking action which the responsible and constitutional]
authorities in the Colony consider to be in the best
interests of Hong Kong, or (ii) to recognise that
Hong Kong's interests are not always the same as
those of the United Kingdom, to show other countries
that we acknowledge this fact, and to intervene only when, in our judgment, the UK interests involved are
of overriding importance. We would urge, therefore,
that Melville's ideas be carefully considered. We
suggest that, subject to the views of the Hong Kong
/ Government
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