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DSR 11C
SECRET
leases without a fixed date have not been issued before in
Hong Kong. The second reason is that there are many
thousands of land leases in the New Territories; they must
all be altered at the same time.
Doubts
4. Similarly, there is a legal problem about the
Governor's powers to administer the New Territories.
about this could undermine the value of removing the 1997
date from the leases. Under present British law the
Governor's powers of administration in the New Territories
end in 1997. We therefore intend also to remove this
There would
then be no
purely legal obstacle. This would remove any legal
impediment under British law to the continuation of the
present administration in the New Territories after 1997. This aclim But it would be purely permissive. That is to say, its
only effect would be to permit such administration to
continue under British law if, at the time, the Chinese
Government so wished. It would not in any way prejudice
what those wishes would be.
5. To deal with these two aspects of the problem it will
be necessary to pass a law on land leases in Hong Kong and
issue an Order in Council in London. The latter is a legal
act which does not have to be approved or discussed by
parliament.
Our present intention is to announce the steps
we propose to take when the Governor opens the Hong Kong
Legislative Council in October. In doing so, we would
naturally make it clear that these steps were entirely
without prejudice to the Chinese position on Hong Kong,
and did not commit either the present or future Chinese
Governments to any particular course of action with regard
to the future of the territory.
SECRET
[a copy
Dd 0532000 400 M 5/78 HMSO Bracknell
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