R P Margolis
PEKING
CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
Dear Richard,
Telephone 01-
30
ALAF REF.
Your reference
Our reference KK 040 |548/1
Date
14 December 1976
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STATUS OF HONG KONG
1. Please refer to my teleletter of 16 November in which I promised to let you know the result of research into official statements about the question of sovereignty over Hong Kong. I am enclosing as requested copies of relevant extracts from this year's Hansard, together with a copy of Huang Hua's letter of 8 March 1972 and Sir Colin Crowe's reply of 14 December 1972.
2. The powers of the Crown and the relationship of the Hong_Kong Government to the Crown are set out in the Hong Kong Letters Patent of 1917, which, though subject to subsequent amendments, are still in force. The fact that Britain exercises sovereign powers over Hong Kong is clear from the Letters Patent. British Ministers and represen- tatives at meetings of international organisations have on a number of occasions stated that there has been no change in the status of Hong Kong. Mr Rees Williams, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Colonial Office, stated in answer to a Parliamentary Question on 7 July 1948 that there was no change in Hong Kong's position as a Crown Colony. Lord Shepherd, Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, stated in the House of Lords on 14 November 1967 that HMG would not consider any abrogation of their responsibility to the people of Hong Kong. More recently, on 1 April this year, Lord Goronwy-Roberts said in the House of Lords that "HMG will continue to administer the territory of Hong Kong] in the interests of those who live there ... These statements, like that in Sir Colin Crowe's letter of 14 December 1972 to the UN Secretary General, contain an implicit assertion of British sovereignty over Hong Kong. So too does a memorandum which the FCO submitted to the Defence and External Affairs Sub-Committee of the House of Commons Select Committee on Expenditure late last year. The memorandum contains, inter alia, the following statement:-
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CONFIDENTIAL
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