CONFIDENTIAL
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
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Hier 027/3
A
Dear John,
6 December 1982
1 Ramblin 기
F63
See(71)
In your letter of 26 November you asked for an account of the circumstances which led to our ceasing to report to the United Nations on Hong Kong. This was raised briefly at the meeting in Hong Kong on 2 December, but you may like to have the full story.
Z
In accordance with Article 73(e) of the United Nations Charter, the United Kingdom began transmitting information on Hong Kong to the Secretary-General annually from 1947. In 1960 the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Resolution 1514 of 1960). In 1963, when the Committee of 24 took over the function of the Committee of Information from Non-Self-Government Territories, it approved a preliminary list of territories, including Hong Kong, to which the Declaration applied. (Bulgaria, Cambodia and the USSR reserved the positions of their Governments on the inclusion of Hong Kong because they regarded this territory as an integral part of the People's Republic of China forcibly occupied by the United Kingdom).
3
In late 1971, the Government of the PRC took over the China seat in the United Nations replacing the representatives of the regime in Taiwan. On 8 March 1972, the Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China, in a letter to the Chairman of the Committee of 24, asked for the removal of Hong Kong from the list of territories to which the Declaration applied, stating that Hong Kong was part of Chinese territory occupied by the United Kingdom and that the settlement of the question of Hong Kong fell entirely within China's sovereign right. (I enclose a copy of the letter).
attached 6 (64)
4 This letter was referred to the Working Group of the Committee of 24. The Working Group's recommendation, that the General Assembly should adopt the decision removing Hong Kong from the list of non-self-governing countries, was approved by the Committee of 24 included in its report to the General Assembly. The resolution, approving the report, was adopted in Plenary on 2 November 1972. However, it also contained much offensive language on, inter alia, South Africa and military bases. an annual ritual and the United Kingdom as usual voted against the resolution, which was adopted by 99 - 5 - 23, and did not participate in the discussion or speak in explanation of vote.
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