CONFIDENTIAL
3
DSR 11C
C
Committee of 24 and included in its report to the
General Assembly. In October 1972 the report was
considered in plenary and on 2 November the General
Assembly approved it. The United Kingdom as usual
voted against this resolution, which was adopted by
a1]
99-5 (UK) -23, but did not participate in the discussion, Lor speak in explanation of the vote
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By the time the Committee of 24's report was discussed
Goverment
uld
in plenary the [UK] had decided that if the General
(the UK Assembly adopted the Committee's recommendation, it would
cease to transmit information on Hong Kong under
Article 73(e). This decision was based on the
Mies
(a)
following reasons:
reasoning u
Legal Advisers thought that if the Generay
Assembly approved the Committee of 24's report,
including the recommendation on Hong Kong, this
would imply that the General Assembly would also
consider that Article 73(e) was no longer
applicable to Hong Kong. Nevertheless they
advised that there was need to safeguard our
legal position on this matter and to this end
recommended that t be put on record that the
UK had decided to discontinue transmission because
no practical purpose would be served by continuing
transmission and not because the UK regarded the
General Assembly's action as altering the status
of Hong Kong or terminating the operation of
Article 73(e).
cle
A letter to this effect was sent
CONFIDENTIAL
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