CONFIDENTIAL
нкко
он
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
29 SEP 1980
DESK ON.
Telephond EX 233..3184–
M W Maclay Esq
UK Mission to the United Nations NEW YORK
ملا
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Your reference
Our reference HKK 040/1
Date
29 September 1980
108)
Dear Maclay,
>
1.
In your letter of 15 September, you ask for a statement of the exact status of Hong Kong and why the Territory was removed from the UN list of dependent territories.
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2. The following may be regarded as the current definitive statement of HMG's view of Hong Kong's status (it is contained in an FCO memorandum published on 11 March 1976 as Appendix 5 of the Third Report for the Expenditure Committee of the House of Commons for the 1975-76 Session - House of Commons Paper 270):
3.
'Hong Kong is a Crown Colony and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is responsible to Parliament for the Government there. The Colony's Constitution is contained in Letters Patent and Royal Instructions issued to the Governor of Hong Kong.
'The Governor is both the representative of, and responsible to, the Crown whose views are conceyed through the Secretary of State. The Governor is the supreme authority within the Colony. However, the Letters Patent formally reserve to the Crown the powers of disallowance of any Ordinance enacted in Hong Kong and the pwoer to legislate for the Colony by prerogative Order in Council. Furthermore, the UK Parliament has power to legislate for Hong Kong by Act of Parliament.'
No tacit agreement was made with the Chinese over the deletion of Hong Kong from the list. Hong Kong (and Macao) were deleted solely at China's request. China's position is contained in Permanent Representative Huang Hua's letter to the Decolonisation Committee of 8 March 1972, in which he state: 'Hong Kong and Macao are part of Chinese territory occupied by the British and Portuguese authorities. The settlement of the questions of Hong Kong and Macao is entirely with China's sovereign right and does not at all fall under the ordinary category of 'colonial territories'. Such a settlement would be achieved 'in an appropriate way when conditions are ripe'.
CONFIDENTIAL
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