was raised again coincidentally with the amendment of the Hong Kong law. There is and was no intention on the part of the UK Government to depart from standards set by the Convention, and UK law and practice provides benefits equal to or better than those called for by the Convention. The law and practice in the UK, however, achieves the aims of the Convention in a manner not entirely consistent with its terms. A declaration that a decision was reserved in respect of this Convention had already been registered in respect of Hong Kong as long ago as 27 March 1950 under the provisions of Convention No.83. The latter provides for declarations of application to be deposited in respect of non-metropolitan territories for particular Conventions whether or not these Conventions have been ratified by the Member State, but the value of such declarations has been lessened by the fact that Convention No.83 has not been brought into force. Because of the ineffectiveness of Convention No.83, HMG was considering denunciation of this Convention at about the same time as the question of denunciation of Convention No.17 was reopened. This would have had the effect that all declarations made under Convention No.83 would have been nullified. It therefore seemed impracticable to make a declara- tion in respect of Hong Kong at that time, particularly as Hong Kong has been the only non-metropolitan territory to state consistently in Article 22 reports on the Conventions comprising No.83 that declarations made in respect of these Conventions will not become effective until Convention No.83 is brought into force. All other territories have appeared to regard declarations made under Convention No.83 as binding.
The position has recently changed in regard to both Conventions No.17 and No.83. In the case of Convention No.17, the last opportunity to denounce was missed and the Convention is not again open to denunciation until 1976, so that any declaration made in respect of Convention No.17 in its own right would be binding on Hong Kong until 1976. This is a very short time, however, for the standards set by the Convention to become established, and it is still an open question whether or not the UK will denounce in 1976. If it does, Hong Kong would no longer be bound by its declaration. With regard to Convention No.83, however, the position is much firmer. HMG also failed to
/denounce