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instruments of entrustment, I suggest that the first sentence of this paragraph should be amended so that the end reads:
"...the Hong Kong Government is allowed to conduct some external relations."
8. With regard to paragraph 11, I agree that an acknowledgement by HMG of Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong would of course imply that the UK no longer had sovereignty over the ceded areas. I do not, however, think that it would necessarily imply that the international lease of the New Territories had no continuing validity in international law.
Since territorial sovereignty over the New Territories has always remained with China, and in the early days of the lease was specifically acknowledged by HMG, it would in theory be possible to repeat an acknowledgement of that sovereignty without necessarily implying that the lease was at an end. However, I agree with the main thrust of this paragraph that if we acknowledge Chinese sovereignty over the whole territory and secure no agreement with the Chinese to regulate our continued presence, it would no longer be practical to administer the territory as a colony. With these points in view I suggest that the first two sentences be replaced by:
"An acknowledgement by HMG of Chinese sovereignty would imply that the UK no longer had sovereignty over the ceded areas. It would not necessarily imply that the international lease of the New Territories had no continuing validity in international law. Unless however there were
some agreement with the Chinese to regulate a British presence in Hong Kong the UK would no longer be able in practice to administer the territory as a colony."
9. In paragraph 13, line 2,I would delete the words "a formal". The important objective is to obtain an international agreement, and the degree of formality is of no legal consequence.
10. In addition to the point already mentioned about paragraph 14, the word "or" should be changed to "of" in line 2, and in line 5 "is" should be changed to "was",
11.
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Paragraph 18 refers to a situation in which we would have acknowledged Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong, and would have agreed to a continued British presence. second sentence of the paragraph should be changed to read:
The
"Whatever arrangements were eventually agreed could be made legally effective in domestic law by an Act of Parliament and an appropriate British constitutional instrument made under it, eg Order in Council."
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