RESTRICTED
COVERING CONFIDENTIAL
United Kingdom Mission
37-39 rue de Vermont 1211 Geneva 20
Telex 22956
Telegrams Prodrome Geneva
Telephoné 34 38 00 33 23 85
R
H
Your reference
Miss M J Maxwell
Office of the International
Our reference
GUN 211/13
Labour Adviser
Foreign and Commonwealth Office LONDON SW1
Date
1 May 1986,
HAM 201
RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
- 2 MAY 1986
Jene Mary
DESK OFFICER INDEX
REGISTRY
PA
Action Taken
ILO: HONG KONG AND THE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR CONFERENCE (ILC)
1.
Hilary Kellerson, ILO Legal Department telephoned on 30 April. She told me that during his visit to Geneva last week for the meeting on the ILO's Special Public Works Programme Adrian Smith had asked her whether the Chinese Mission had reacted to the approach, reported in my letter of 12 March (now enclosed for UND and Peking). She said that she had had nothing to report when Adrian saw her.
2. However shortly after Adrian's visit the Labour Counsellor in the Chinese Mission came to see Francis Wolf, ILO Legal Adviser to talk about structure. She and Wolf had seized the opportunity to ask Wang Jianbang how Peking had reacted. Wang implied that he had not reported Mrs Kellerson's approach to his capital; had it been hoped that he would? Mrs Kellerson confirmed it had, while reminding Wang that it was Britain's constitutional right (under paragraph 3 of Article 3 of the Constitution) to include in our delegation an advisory component (tripartite or otherwise) from non- metropolitan territories. Wang then asked why we had this year chosen to include a component that was tripartite. Mrs Kellerson replied that it was not the ILO's role to speculate about this but that she knew that Hong Kong had sent a tripartite delegation to last year's Asian Regional Conference.
3.
Mrs Kellerson is certain that Wang will now report to Peking. She implied that her conversation with him had left her slightly uneasy. She herself could offer no suggestion on how we could further smooth Hong Kong's passage. But if we had any ideas, the ILO were "available to help". She would of course let us know if Wang returned to the subject with her.
RESTRICTED
/ COMMENT