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has replied (Hong Kong telegram No 49) that the Deportation and
Detention Regulations in force in Hong Kong would still breach
Article 6 of the Convention and that the Hong Kong Government
still need to retain these regulations, although they have not
been used in recent years.
4. The only way of extending the Convention but keeping the
Regulations might be to make use of Article 15 of the Convention.
This allows a party to derogate from its obligations under the
Convention "in time of war or other public emergency threatening
the life of the nation". This power of derogation has been used,
for example, in Northern Ireland. But it would be politically
very undesirable in Hong Kong, since its use could raise the
whole question of the future of Hong Kong and its relations
with China at a moment when the maintenance of confidence would
be of the greatest importance.
5.
The department's Legal Adviser therefore agrees with
Sir Hugh Norman Walker that it would not be desirable to extend
the Convention to Hong Kong at the present time.
He does not,
however, favour the explanation suggested in paragraph 7 of
Hong Kong telegram No 49 since the Convention has been extended
by us to Asian countries in the past. He therefore recommends
a more uncompromising answer.
6. An important point is whether, in the absence of the
application of the European Convention, the inhabitants of
Hong Kong are nevertheless protected in their general rights as
set out in the Convention. We can claim that this is broadly
/the
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CONFIDENTIAL